SEP pointless, doesn’t mandate Tamil medium: PMK president Anbumani

CHENNAI: Calling the State Education Policy (SEP) a pointless exercise, PMK president Anbumani condemned the state government for failing to announce any initiative to mandate Tamil medium education in schools.

In a statement, Anbumani noted that the policy was in preparation for three years and shelved for one year. Apart from announcing initiatives like abolishing board exams for Class 11, climate education, and numerical mathematics, the policy is just a makeover of the existing system, he said.

“Even though the committee to draft the policy was formed under retired Supreme Court judge D Murugesan, the members of the committee were not given freedom. Allegations were levelled that the committee was pressured to draft the policy in line with the government's action plan,” he recalled.

Further pointing out that the committee handed over the draft to Chief Minister MK Stalin in July 2024, he said that the final policy should have been prepared after consulting with the educationalists, parents, and students. However, the final policy was released without any action on the draft policy, he added.

“The policy is a disappointment to everyone who expected to make Tamil a medium of teaching. There is no announcement about this in the policy. When the committee held stakeholder meetings, several participants suggested making Tamil mandatory. But, the DMK government has failed to mandate Tamil,” he added.

He expressed that until a few decades ago, more than 80 per cent of students were from government schools. At present, the number of students in private schools is higher compared to government schools, he said. “As many as 37,554 government schools have 52.75 lakh students. Meanwhile, 12,970 private schools have 63.42 lakh students. The government policy has been prepared in a certain way that will lead to diversion of more students towards the private schools,” he warned.