SEP to be implemented next academic year
The State government included new members in the panel besides announcing a 4 months extension of the deadline for the SEP panel to submit its report.
Representative image
CHENNAI: With expert committee senior member Professor Jawahar Nesan resigning from the panel, the implementation of the exclusive Tamil Nadu State Education Policy (SEP) is expected to be implemented during the next academic year after completing formalities.
After opposing the Central Government’s New Education Policy (NEP-2020), the DMK government after it came to power constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of retired High Court Judge D Murugesan to formulate a distinct State Education Policy (SEP).
Accordingly, the panel conducted a series of review meetings to give shape to SEP. However, in a setback to its work, one of the senior members and convener, of the expert committee, Jawahar Nesan resigned from the panel citing that the SEP was in line with NEP and also complained that interference from the principal secretary-level officers.
After the expert committee had denied Jawahar’s charges, the State government included new members in the panel besides announcing a four months extension of the deadline for the SEP panel to submit its report.
A senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, said that the SEP panel should have submitted its report for the public and other stakeholders to seek suggestions and feedback a couple of months back. He said that based on the suggestions, the final report was earlier expected to be submitted by May itself so that certain aspects of the report could be followed in the new academic year.
“However, due to the extension of the date, the release of the draft report might be in September or October”, he said adding “once the draft report was released in the public domain, at least two months’ time frame would be given to get the feedback and therefore, the final report is expected only by January or February”.
The official pointed out that after the official release of the SEP’s final report, the State government is expected to pass a resolution for the implementation of the policy in both schools and in higher educational institutions. “Perhaps, the implementation of SEP is expected in the next academic year,” he claimed.