DMK MP Dr Thamizhachi Thangapandian had an article published in The New Indian Express in which she blames National Education Policy 2020 as propaganda.
She belongs to the cadre that printed the fake information in the Class 9 textbook, for which UNESCO awarded E.V.R. the Socrates of South Asia award (whatever that means!). Against which a PIL was filed in the Madras High Court. Thangapandian comes from a party where the Higher Education Minister has been convicted by court.
Now, let us go to the article itself. It starts with a quote by Martin Luther King. “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” But here is what NEP2020 says:
The education system aims to develop good human beings capable of rational thought and action, possessing compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, scientific temper, and creative imagination, with sound ethical moorings and values. It aims to produce engaged, productive, and contributing citizens who will build an equitable, inclusive, and plural society as envisaged by our Constitution.
In contrast to the identical message conveyed through the above, students from Tamil Nadu schools and colleges are not permitted to think; instead they are asked to swallow and vomit the answers to score marks. A significant percentage of graduates are without jobs that match their degree certificates not because of the dearth of jobs but because they are unfit for those jobs despite their college years. This must make the state government ashamed to even speak about education, let alone find fault in a policy that has the nation’s interest at its core.
In the agenda-driven article, Thangapandian says, “One of the aims is to include Indian knowledge systems (IKS) in undergraduate and postgraduate curriculums. These range from Indian astronomy to textiles, town planning, and Vedic mathematics … … The IKS initiative allows a backdoor entry to pseudoscience, contradicting a fundamental duty enshrined in the Constitution—the development of scientific temper.”
Thangapandian has named astronomy, textiles, town planning, and Vedic mathematics and clearly none of them is a pseudo-science. She then states, “For instance, the higher education department of Madhya Pradesh recently notified a list of books for the IKS sections of libraries in government, government-aided and private institutions that include those authored by individuals with RSS connections.”
This is clearly a statement that shows her vengefulness for RSS. This method of criticism is unscientific and uncivil. Thangapandian does not criticize the content written by the individual(s), rather she assumes that their very association with RSS makes the content of their writing unacceptable. Seems like her propaganda bosses must have asked her to write such things.
She states, “IIT Mandi’s IKS department introduced a mandatory course … … which included topics like reincarnation, for engineering students. The irony of students with scientific backgrounds being taught unscientific theories seems to have escaped the institution.”
Unsurprisingly, yet again this statement is based on vague assumptions without knowledge of either what is in the book or of the subject in general. Being of a party that has built a memorial for their dead leader whom they garland along with statues of EVR and others, what is her stance on worshipping a statue/picture and, thereafter on reincarnation? A more scientific response that has statistical data to support is that we have top-quality professionals from IIT, AIIMS, IIM, and many other premiere institutions who consciously believe in reincarnation and worshipping ancestors; are counted among the greatest scientific brains in the country and the world.
Let me now list out the pathetic state which is not doing good for anyone in the state of Tamil Nadu except to fill the coffers of the corrupt and the wicked:
As of date, there is NOT ONE university of repute which is run by the state of Tamil Nadu. Every one of them is in shambles, grossly understaffed, and ridden with corruption. ‘Ghost Faculty Scam’ in several Universities in which thousands of positions were filled by mere tens of staff names was widely reported in recent months.
To fill full-time positions, state-run colleges appoint ‘Guest Lecturers’ who are made to teach full-time but who have neither job security nor decent pay. They earn as low as ₹25,000 a month, the lowest in the country. Despite a 2013 court order, the state has not made them permanent.
Statistics show that among graduates, Tamil Nadu’s unemployment rate is 16.3%, compared to the all-India rate of 13.4%.
Tamil Nadu has the unique distinction that it cannot even educate its children in their language.
Deccan Herald reported: ‘In 2022, around 47,000 out of the 900,000 students who took the Class X Board exams failed in Tamil. In 2023, nearly 50,000 Class XII students did not even turn up for the Tamil exam.’
These politicians dare to speak about language superiority in such a situation!
Many schools run privately by those who run the state government are affiliated with CBSE and not the State Board. The article published by The Print in June 2019 states, ‘More than 40 schools run by DMK politicians, and their family members are affiliated to the CBSE, which follows the 3-language formula.’ The likelihood that the number of these schools has increased over the past 5 years is high.
Last but not least, the Director of Loyola College, Rev. Fr. C. Joe Arun is on record where he states that the Class 1 to 5 social sciences syllabus has Jesuit ideologies “injected” into them. THIS IS UNDISGUISED IDEOLOGY in school textbooks!
The state government must first care for the State Board and state-run schools and colleges. You are not in the league of education that can criticize NEP or any policy to which you have no clue.
Unlike Thamizhachi Thangapandian, none of what I have stated is an assumption or my own imagination and I have provided references to corroborate each point that I have stated. If she wishes to pursue the debate, let her do some homework on NEP, IKS, the author of the books she speaks about, etc. and then we can talk. Until then, let her speak to Ponmudi and Anbil Mahesh and get them to do their job.
Yamuna Harshavardhana is a Chennai based educator, researcher and author.
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