Union Minister Pradhan corners DMK with drop in Tamil medium enrolment

CHENNAI: As the war of words continues between the Tamil Nadu government and the Union government over the National Education Policy (NEP), Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan said that DMK’s latest views on language imposition and its stance on NEP’s three-language formula exposes their “hypocrisy”.

“Opposition to NEP 2020 has nothing to do with preservation of Tamil pride, language and culture but everything to do with gaining political dividends. DMK bats for the promotion of Tamil language. But, the truth is that they have done little to promote and preserve Tamil language, literature and literary icons”, he said in his X social media.

He claimed that as per the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) data, enrolments in Tamil Medium dropped from 65.87 lakh in 2018-19 to 46.83 lakh in 2023-24, a reduction of over 19.05 lakh students in a period of five years.

The minister also said that 67% of students are now in English medium schools, while Tamil medium enrolment has dropped from 54% (2018-19) to 36% (2023-24). “In government schools, English medium enrolment jumped 5 times from 3.4 lakh to 17.7 lakh in just five years”, he said, adding that “Tamil enrolment fell by 7.3 lakh in government aided schools, reflecting a deep shift in preference”

“These numbers reveal the real story that enrolments in Tamil medium are on a continuous decline. This isn’t just a shift in language preference, it’s a colonial mindset at play. English is seen as the gateway to status and jobs, Indian languages are seen as a symbol of backwardness”, he claimed.

Stating that encouraging education in mother language is one of the most crucial aspects of NEP, he said, “it is one of the surest pathways to foster critical thinking in young minds and unleash the full potential of India’s demography. DMK’s empty rhetoric on NEP and language imposition cannot hide their failure. They do politics at the cost of the future of TN.”