CHENNAI: DMK and BJP on Thursday again locked horns over the 'two-language' policy implemented by Tamil Nadu govt. Union govt has been stressing on three-language policy through National Education Policy (NEP).
According to NEP, every student should study two Indian languages, one being their mother tongue, and the other one of their choice, besides English.
School education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and higher education minister K Ponmudy, however, said NEP would not be implemented in the state and it would have its own education policy.
There has been repeated criticism of DMK by TN BJP functionaries, claiming that TN govt was preventing children hailing from economically poor background from learning Hindi.
Former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, speaking to reporters in Chennai, said the two-language policy is followed only in govt schools and not in private schools.
"Private schools are teaching three languages. People want to learn more languages. They (TN govt) want to crush the opportunities of govt school students. I am asking how many children of your ministers and officials are studying under 'samacheer kalvi'. The third language need not be Hindi but can be any regional language of people's choice," Tamilisai said.
DMK general secretary Duraimurugan, however, said the two-language policy would not be overturned at any cost. Recalling the lines of former CM C N Annadurai, the water resources minister, speaking to reporters in Vellore, said, "Anna has said that the third language will erode our mother tongue and it will not be permitted at any cost. It is the BJP that is propagating the three-language policy in Tamil Nadu."
Annadurai, after becoming CM in 1967, announced in the assembly that TN would officially follow the two-language policy with Tamil and English as the official languages.
Since then, the two-language policy has been followed in the state despite repeated demands from various Union govts, in the past, to abandon the policy and to follow the three-language policy.
According to NEP, every student should study two Indian languages, one being their mother tongue, and the other one of their choice, besides English.
School education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and higher education minister K Ponmudy, however, said NEP would not be implemented in the state and it would have its own education policy.
There has been repeated criticism of DMK by TN BJP functionaries, claiming that TN govt was preventing children hailing from economically poor background from learning Hindi.
Former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, speaking to reporters in Chennai, said the two-language policy is followed only in govt schools and not in private schools.
"Private schools are teaching three languages. People want to learn more languages. They (TN govt) want to crush the opportunities of govt school students. I am asking how many children of your ministers and officials are studying under 'samacheer kalvi'. The third language need not be Hindi but can be any regional language of people's choice," Tamilisai said.
DMK general secretary Duraimurugan, however, said the two-language policy would not be overturned at any cost. Recalling the lines of former CM C N Annadurai, the water resources minister, speaking to reporters in Vellore, said, "Anna has said that the third language will erode our mother tongue and it will not be permitted at any cost. It is the BJP that is propagating the three-language policy in Tamil Nadu."
Annadurai, after becoming CM in 1967, announced in the assembly that TN would officially follow the two-language policy with Tamil and English as the official languages.
Since then, the two-language policy has been followed in the state despite repeated demands from various Union govts, in the past, to abandon the policy and to follow the three-language policy.
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