The National Education Policy (NEP) will be scrapped in Karnataka from the next academic year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Monday. Siddaramaiah was speaking at a general body meeting of the Karnataka Congress. “The NEP, which was introduced by the previous BJP government, will be completely scrapped from the next academic year,” Siddaramaiah said. The Congress, in its manifesto, had promised to scrap the NEP. It will be replaced by a state education policy (SEP).“Scrapping the NEP requires some preparation. There was no time for it this year. By the time elections got over and our government came, the academic year had started. We decided to continue with NEP this year in order to ensure there’s no disturbance.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar had announced that the Congress won’t implement the NEP in the state. Instead, the government would formulate a new education policy, he said. Shivakumar had even dubbed NEP as the Nagpur Education Policy referring to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur city. Shivakumar maintained, There should have been elaborate discussion on the NEP. I am an education expert by choice. I run education institutions and in the post of trustee or president in various institutions. I can’t understand the NEP. I tried to study and understand twice or thrice, but failed. Even after discussing with students and teachers, not able to grasp the gist of NEP, Shivakumar maintained. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had charged that the objective of NEP is to teach communal things to students. He also opined that the National Education Policy violates the rights of the state. Commenting on the development, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had stated, to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) in Karnataka, nearly three years have been taken. The committee headed by U.R. Rao was set up and consent from all states obtained. After this, before implementation, a task force was formed and then it was implemented in higher and primary education, he maintained.