When Kasturirangan, as National Education Policy panel chief, defended language flexibility

Time of India

25-04-2025

Bengaluru: While
fresh protests
have emerged in several states over the
National Education Policy
's three-language formula, these fault lines aren't new. Back in 2019, when the Centre accepted the draft NEP, similar concerns had surfaced — and K Kasturirangan, who chaired the committee that authored the policy, had addressed them directly in an exclusive interview with TOI.
"There is nothing coercive," he had said, responding to fears of Hindi imposition. "The recommendation was simply to include one language that's not the state language or English — chosen freely by students. For example, a child in Karnataka could learn Kannada, English, and Tamil or Gujarati."
Kasturirangan underscored that the spirit behind this was to foster linguistic exchange, not enforce uniformity. He even offered to correct any misreading of the draft. Today, as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and parts of the northeast oppose a perceived imposition through the
policy
's rollout, those remarks offer crucial context.
Beyond language, Kasturirangan described NEP as a "radical" and "comprehensive" overhaul. It restructured schooling into four phases starting from age three, with strong emphasis on play-based and discovery-led learning in the early years.
He advocated integrated curricular and co-curricular activities and a shift to a four-year undergraduate programme enabling students to pursue multi-disciplinary learning — "physics with philosophy," as he put it.
He lamented the fragmentation of Indian education into silos and sought a return to the holistic ethos of ancient centres like Nalanda and Takshashila. "The 21st century needs learners who think deeply, communicate well, and solve real problems," he had said, laying out a vision that remains both ambitious and hotly debated.