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Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said an awareness drive will also be launched to check communal influence in schools
Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi held a high-level review meeting with chief educational officers from across the state. (Image: @AnbilMahesh4evr)
Criticising the Centre over an alleged Sanskrit bias, Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Tuesday announced major textbook revisions in state-run schools.
Poyyamozhi said this was decided because the central government prioritised Sanskrit over other classical Indian languages. The revision will happen soon and an awareness drive will be launched alongside to check communal influence in schools.
According to a report published by India Today, his comments came after he held a high-level review meeting with chief educational officers from across the state. They also echoed Chief Minister MK Stalin’s words from earlier in the day, when he, too, slammed the Union government for skewed funding favouring Sanskrit over classical languages.
“We’re already working on it (revision of textbooks), and an official announcement will follow shortly,” Poyyamozhi was quoted. “Despite India having five other classical languages, only Sanskrit is being given undue prominence. There is a continuous bias.”
Responding to concerns over communal influence, as per the report, the minister said he had held a two-day brainstorming session with senior officials to find solutions.
“We are planning to raise awareness through district collectors and ensure such influences are identified and removed,” he was quoted.
‘NOTHING BUT CROCODILE TEARS’
Stalin’s comments, meanwhile, triggered a political row. He said the Centre was biased in the allocation of central funds favouring Sanskrit over other Indian classical languages, including Tamil.
“Sanskrit gets the crores; Tamil and other South Indian languages get nothing but crocodile tears,” Stalin wrote in a post on X, citing a media report.
The media report quoted the reply to an RTI query saying the government allocated Rs 2,532.59 crore between 2014-15 and 2024-25 for the promotion of Sanskrit.
In contrast, a total of only Rs 147.56 crore was spent on all five other classical Indian languages combined – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia – over the same period, the report stated.
From Karnataka to Maharashtra and now Tamil Nadu, opposition and other regional parties have opposed the alleged imposition of either Sanskrit or Hindi in school curriculum under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
The implementation of the three-language formula has recently caused a massive stir in Maharashtra, where regional parties like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction have called the ruling BJP and Centre “anti-Maharashtra” for trying to impose Hindi instead of Marathi in schools.
(With agency inputs)
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