B C Nagesh questions Congress over SEP implementation in Karnataka

'I would like to ask the minister, whether SEP will be implemented only for state board schools, or will it be applicable to other board schools in the state? Will the SEP be implemented even in the schools run by Congress ministers including D K Shivakumar, M B Patil, G Parameshwara and others?' B C Nagesh asked.

Former school education minister B C Nagesh on Monday posed a series of questions to the Congress government on implementation of State Education Policy (SEP).

Addressing a news conference after releasing memes titled “Falsehoods in Karnataka Textbooks” prepared by People’s Forum for Karnataka, Nagesh asked School Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa to clarify on why Congress is implementing SEP.

“I would like to ask the minister, whether SEP will be implemented only for state board schools, or will it be applicable to other board schools in the state? Will the SEP be implemented even in the schools run by Congress ministers including D K Shivakumar, M B Patil, G Parameshwara and others?” Nagesh asked. 

Throwing up another question, Nagesh asked why the Congress decided to withdraw the National Education Policy and frame SEP. “As the minister himself said several times, did the government decide to implement SEP just because it was announced in the manifesto?” he asked.

Meanwhile Nagesh sought clarification from Madhu Bangarappa on framing another committee to revise existing textbooks. “What was the need to constitute another committee to revise textbooks when they have announced SEP? And when there is National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023, why does the government want to revise textbooks based on NCF 2005?” Nagesh said.

Defending the revision committee headed by Rohith Chakratirtha when the BJP was in power, Nagesh said he was basically a teacher and an author. “The BJP government decided to revise textbooks because the NCERT sent a detailed report highlighting mistakes in the books revised by Baraguru Ramachandrappa. Our revision was not politically motivated,” Nagesh said.