Union, W.B. Education Ministers spar over NEP, funds

Criticizing the Mamata Banerjee government on various education-related fronts, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that West Bengal has lost Central funds worth Rs 10,000 crore due to failure to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) in the State.

“Despite repeated demands, NEP has not been implemented by the State government in West Bengal. The policy talks about education in mother tongue and that there should be Bengali in West Bengal. The State government does not want to allow Bengali education,” Mr. Pradhan said while addressing a teachers’ conference organized by the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Saturday.

The Union Minister said that if the NEP had been implemented, additional funds would have been given to the State under the Samagra Shiksha Mission. Mr. Pradhan also accused the Mamata Banerjee government of siphoning funds from the midday meal scheme.

Mr. Pradhan cited various statistics to claim that the education system in West Bengal had deteriorated during the Trinamool Congress regime in the state. The minister said West Bengal accounts for nearly 50% of the total schools in the country that do not have a single teacher. “The maximum number of teacherless schools in the country is in West Bengal. The figure is around 4,000, which is almost 50 per cent of the national figure,” he said.

The BJP leader said that internet usage in government schools in West Bengal is just 16% compared to the national average of 70%.

‘SEPTEMBER is more developed’

State Education Minister Bratya Basu denied the accusations made by the Union Minister and said that the State Education Policy (SEP) has been adopted in 2023 in which all acceptable aspects of NEP have been incorporated.

“Policies that protect the interests of West Bengal and those already implemented in the state have also been included. The State Education Policy is more advanced. Since education is included in the concurrent list, the Bengal government has the authority to follow its own policy,” the State Education Minister said.

On the Union Minister’s accusation that the State has the highest number of teacherless schools in the country, Basu claimed that there are inconsistencies in this information due to various reasons.

“The education portal includes several private aided schools which had zero number of teachers and hence were closed. However, due to their UDISE numbers, these are still shown as government schools on the portal. These have been identified and a corrected portal will be released shortly,” West Bengal Education Minister said.

Regarding low penetration of internet, Mr. Basu said internet facilities were provided to all government high schools, secondary schools and Higher Secondary Schools in the state long ago.

The State Secretary of Education also denied accusations that lunch funds were siphoned off, saying the allegations were “unfounded and baseless allegations.” “If any such complaint is found anywhere, anyone can file an FIR in the matter, but none of them have come to the knowledge of the Government,” Mr. Basu said.