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

Criticising the Mamata Banerjee government on several fronts relating to education, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that West Bengal lost Central funds worth ₹10,000 crore by not implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) in the State.

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

The Union Minister said that had the NEP 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 off funds from the midday meal scheme.

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

The BJP leader said that internet penetration in state-run schools is just 16 % in West Bengal, compared to the national average of 70 %.

‘SEP more advanced’

State Education Minister Bratya Basu refuted the charges made by the Union Minister and said that the State Education Policy (SEP) was adopted in 2023, where all acceptable aspects of the NEP have been incorporated.

“Policies that protect the interests of West Bengal and those already practised in the State have also been included. The State Education Policy is more advanced. Education being on the concurrent list, the Bengal government is empowered to follow its own policy,” the State Education Minister said.

On the charge of the Union Minister that the State has the highest number of teacher-less schools in the country, Mr. Basu claimed that there are inconsistencies in this information for various reasons.

“The education portal includes several private aided schools whose teacher count became zero and were consequently shut down. However, due to their UDISE numbers, they are still shown as government schools on the portal. These have been identified, and a corrected portal will be published shortly,” the West Bengal Education Minister said.

On low penetration of internet, Mr. Basu said that all government upper primary, secondary and Higher Secondary schools in the state were provided internet facilities long ago.

The State Education Minister also refuted charges of siphoning out of mid day meal funds and said that the claims were “baseless and unfounded allegation”. “If any such complaint is found anywhere, anyone can file an FIR regarding the matter, none of which has come to the knowledge of the Government,” Mr. Basu.