Chennai, May 17: Tamil Nadu on Monday boycotted a virtual meeting of State Education Secretaries convened by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to review COVID-19 situation, online education and work around the National Education Policy. The decision to skip the meeting came as the State Government was upset that the Union Education Ministry had invited the Education Secretary and not the Education Minister for the meeting.
School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi wrote to Pokhriyal pointing out that it would have been appropriate to have invited the Education Department Minister along with officials for a vital meeting such as this. Had that been done he would participated in it and shared the views on the New Education Policy.
Explaining his stand to journalists on Monday Poyyamozhi said that Chief Minister M K Stalin had told him that he should take part in the meeting. “We wrote to the Union Government about this but there was no response. Hence we did not participate in today’s meeting,” he said.
The Minister made it clear that this was not a case of confrontation. “We are not looking to fight with them, but want to be able to participate and explain our views on the National Education Policy,” he said.
The DMK had incidentally opposed the Draft NEP that was unveiled last year. The Minister pointed out that the suggestions made by the party were not taken into consideration while preparing the final National Education Policy.
“There are many aspects that need further discussion including the three language policy mooted by them,” he said.
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