Bengaluru,UPDATED: Aug 14, 2023 21:00 IST
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said that the National Education Policy (NEP) will be scrapped in the state from next academic year. The Congress government will change the education policy in accordance with the Indian Constitution and will introduce a State Education Policy (SEP), the chief minister said.
Siddaramaiah accused the previous BJP government of “trying to implement the RSS agenda” in education through the NEP.
“They [BJP] tried to impose the RSS hidden agenda all over. The draft [of NEP] was made in Nagpur, the RSS headquarters. No other BJP-ruled state implemented it, but Karnataka did. I want to tell you one thing, this year we were late. But in the next academic year, we will change the new education policy and will try to give education as per the constitution,” the Chief Minister said.
Addressing a party meeting at the Karnataka Congress Committee headquarters, CM Siddaramaiah said they decided to continue the NEP this year to avoid inconvenience to the students in the middle of the year. “It will be completely cancelled next year,” he said.
“NEP has been opposed by students, parents and lecturers and teachers simultaneously. He said that the BJP has sacrificed the interest of the students by implementing NEP in the state even before other states implemented it in the country,” the chief minister said.
Implementing SEP was a poll promise in the Congress manifesto. The party also promised to undo the changes made to school textbooks when the BJP was in power.
The Bsavaraj Bommai-led BJP government adopted the NEP in higher education in August 2021. It was the first state to adopt the policy. However, Congress has been opposing NEP, calling it the “Nagpur Education Policy”.