Document: Draft National Education Policy 2019

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has uploaded the draft National Education Policy 2019 on its website. Comments and suggestions are being invited from the public till June 30, 2019, after which the draft will be finalised. The draft policy attracted controversy after certain clauses in it sought to impose a three-language rule in schools with Hindi being made compulsory. Since the release of the report on Friday, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and a few other States strongly condemned the Centre's imposition of Hindi. Protests were held in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka as well. Even the AIADMK, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu, stood by the State's two-language formula. In face of the protests, the committee that drafted the policy, headed by former ISRO chief K. Kasturirangan, quickly revised the policy. The revised draft, while retaining the recommendation for the three-language formula from Class 1 onwards, removed the clause stipulating the languages. The Draft National Education Policy 2019 can be accessed by clicking the link below.