National Education Policy 2020: West Bengal Won’t Implement it For Time Being

© Manmath Nayak | India.com News Desk
Partha Chatterjee


National Education Policy Latest News: One of the most vocal critics of the National Education Policy 2020, West Bengal on Monday objected to Centre’s decision of excluding Bengali from list of classical languages and said the new policy is against the federal structure. Soon after attending the virtual meeting with PM Modi on NEP 2020, West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said that his state has decided not to implement the NEP for time being as more discussions needed to be held on it.

NEP 2020 not to be implemented in Bengal for time being, more discussions need to be held on it: State education minister Partha Chatterjee

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 7, 2020

“The National Education Policy 2020 is against the federal structure, and undermines role of states,” Chatterjee said, adding, ” West Bengal government has objected to Centre’s decision of excluding Bengali from list of classical languages.” Notably, the state government had formed a six-member committee to give its views and suggestions about various features of NEP 2020 which will enable it to formally respond to the Centre about the new policy. The committee had submitted its observations to the government in the last week of August. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “maximum flexibility” has to be shown in implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP) and all questions about it have to be addressed, as he asserted that it is not a government’s but the country’s education policy. Addressing the ‘Governors’ Conference on the Role of NEP in Transforming Higher Education’, Modi said it is natural for stakeholders to have questions about various aspects of the policy and “we are all working to address all these questions”.

Approved by the Union Cabinet in July, the new NEP replaces the 34-year-old National Policy on Education framed in 1986 and is aimed at paving the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems to make India a global knowledge superpower.