With the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections just 15 months away, the language issue between the Centre and the State government has flared up again. And this is hardly surprising. It all started with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan saying that the Centre will withhold ₹2,152 crore funds earmarked under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan unless the Tamil Nadu government adopted NEP 2020.
This predictably led to a war of words between the State and the Centre with the TN government refusing to adopt NEP 2020, which it feels with its three-language formula, imposes Hindi on the State — an issue which has been a red button one for decades.
NEP 2020 in principle does not insist on teaching Hindi in State schools — the three-language formula is about teaching English, the State language and another Indian language (not necessarily Hindi). But the Tamil Nadu government, not surprisingly, fears that this is a “backdoor” way of imposing Hindi on the State, which it has stoutly opposed since the 1930s.
With elections due in mid-2026, the DMK, which has already got into election mode, is already milking this issue. But in the rough and tumble of politics the real issue of primary and secondary education in Tamil Nadu is being missed. It is not the teaching or non-teaching of Hindi, that is an issue — it is the poor learning outcomes in Tamil Nadu government schools.
The Annual Status of Education (ASER) report of 2024 shows that among Class V students, only 37 per cent could read a Class II text. The data for arithmetic ability were equally dismal.
For a State like Tamil Nadu which has impressive human development indices, learning outcomes are still a challenge that needs focussed attention. But these real issues get buried under the spectacle of electoral politics.