Renowned educationist and former Vice Chancellor of Anna University, E Balaguruswamy hailed the National Educational Policy (NEP) and stressed the need to encourage the 3-language formula where students from government schools attain the opportunity to learn an extra language apart from English and the native language so that they can find more job and business opportunities in other states.
In an interview Balagurusamy said that denying Hindi for students in government schools and allowing Hindi to be taught in private schools that students from financially rich backgrounds attend are part of a political agenda.
He also added that the NEP does not impose Hindi; and in states like Tamil Nadu, more than sixty percent of the schools are under the CBSE (Central Board Secondary Education). Many of these institutions which are owned by politicians also teach foreign languages, he said.
“Nowhere in the NEP document it says that Hindi is compulsory and its just a political opinion. National education system has never imposed Hindi on any state, college or universities, it’s a wrong notion. It only says that up to eighth standard mother tongue is the medium of instruction and its applicable for all states and if the student wants to continue, he or she can take it forward to higher secondary levels,” E Balagurusamy said.
“The national education policy does not say Hindi is compulsory at any level – be it school or college. It only says that the mother tongue should be the first language, and English should be the second language as it is an internationally important language. The policy also says the student can learn a third language but this does not have to be Hindi or Sanskrit. If Tamil Nadu wants, they can teach Malayalam as third language, Kannada as third language, but the policy never stressed on Hindi anywhere. But Hindi being a nationally, widely-spoken language, it will be better for our boys and girls as they will be able to get employment opportunities in states other than Tamil Nadu. Business people from places like Tirippur and Karoor who go to North India find it very difficult to interact because of their inability to speak in Hindi,” he said.
Professor E Balagurusamy had on December 5th written a letter to the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar appealing to “Save Universities from the Onslaught of Politicians”. Citing the issues between state governments and their governors regarding the appointment of VCs, the former Vice Chancellor said, “This may lead to a large-scale corruption, nepotism and political influence in the selection process of Vice Chancellors,”.
