Bengal’s new higher education minister, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, said on Wednesday that his department would implement the National Education Policy (NEP), introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2020, in letter and spirit.

His assertion that the state would adhere strictly to the policy immediately fuelled discussions about the possible introduction of curricula based on the “Indian Knowledge System”, an aspect of the NEP that the previous Mamata Banerjee government had resisted.

The move could also pave the way for the introduction of a national entrance test for undergraduate admissions, similar to the system followed in Delhi, an official said.

“The new government will try to arrest the “decline that higher education has registered over the past 50 years” the minister said.

“During the Left Front era, higher education suffered from the promotion of mediocrity. Over the past 15 years, merit has largely been absent from the sector. Our task is to reverse this decline and restore standards in higher education in the state,” he said.

Addressing reporters at the education secretariat, Chattopadhyay said Bengal was “once a polestar” in the Indian knowledge system, and this “lost pride” had to be wrested.

“We will follow the national education policy verbatim. The state will not differ from the path that the Centre will chart.... Bengal was once the polestar in the Indian knowledge system. We have to wrest back the lost pride.

“Our aim is to resume the pursuit of excellence and skill in higher education will be the aim of the BJP government,” Chattopadhyay said.

“Over the past 15 years, Bengal has constantly tried to disintegrate itself from the country. The first job of the higher education department will be to integrate Bengal with the country. This integration will be implemented in all the verticals of education,” the minister said.

The national education policy (NEP) mandates integrating the Indian knowledge system (IKS) — spanning tribal practices, classical sciences, Vedic mathematics, and traditional medicine — into multidisciplinary curricula from schools to universities.

Chattopadhyay said he would try to “ensure that Bengal benefits from the advantage of having a double-engine government” — a BJP government both at the state and the Centre. “Bidhan Chandra Roy was the last chief minister during whose tenure (January 1948 to July 1962) the central government and the state government worked in unison. Later, during the tenure of Siddhartha Shankar Ray (March 1972 to April 1977), the advantage of a double-engine government could not be enjoyed due to disturbances stemming from the Naxalite movement. The following five decades we have spent opposing the Centre,” said Chattopadhyay, a former journalist.

“After five decades, an opportunity has arrived for Bengal to derive the advantages of a double-engine government. Despite political differences, Kerala and Tamil Nadu never tried to disregard the Centre. Bengal did that, and it marked a recession,” he added.

The Left ruled Kerala for a decade before losing power to the Congress-led UDF in the just-concluded electionsthere.

The DMK ruled Tamil Nadu for the past five years before losing this year’s elections.

The DMK was among the handful of governments, besides Bengal, that opposed the national education policy and formed its own state policy.

Although the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government implemented some features of the NEP, like the introduction of the four-year undergraduate programme, it opposed its blanket implementation.

According to academics, a key reason for the opposition was the NEP’s stress on the Indian knowledge System.

The Mamata Banerjee government unveiled a state education policy in 2023 and opposed the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), which was introduced as part of the implementation of the NEP 2020.

The Trinamool Congress government had declined to adopt the CUET for admissions to state-funded universities, arguing that a uniform national entrance test could undermine local academic standards and reduce accessibility for students from rural areas.