Draft, not policy; won’t impose any language – Govt of India

The word ‘Draft’ is causing a stir in Tamil Nadu. According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘Draft’ means A preliminary version of a piece of writing. The reason why we are stressing hard on that word is when the Ministry of Human Resource Development disclosed a draft of the New Education Policy 2019, tensions erupted especially in Tamil Nadu.

It was because the draft suggested inclusion of Hindi in all non-Hindi speaking states. This draft was prepared by a panel committee led by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan that was organized by the then HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.

As per sources, the draft stated that non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, English and Hindi in its curriculum.

Earlier version of draft said, “In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6, so long as the study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in the non-Hindi-speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English.”

This draft was very much unwelcomed in Tamil Nadu and opposition leaders warned that imposing Hindi in the state in anyway would meet terrible consequences.

However post the amassing agitation; the corrected draft states “In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages (one language at the literature level) in their modular Board Examinations some time during secondary school”

The Government of India has also issued a clarification that “this is a draft Policy submitted by the Committee and is placed for views of the general public. It is not the Policy announced by Government. After getting feedback from general public, and after consulting State Governments, the National Education Policy will be finalized by Government. Government under the leadership of Narendra Modi is committed for equal development and promotion of all Indian languages. There will be no imposition of any language in educational institutions, nor discrimination against any language.”

So everything stated in the state has not been made as policy yet and people & state governments will have a say in the final output. So calm down folks, we need to be vigil but not violent.