The Tamil Nadu Government, which has been vehemently opposing the introduction of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in the State, which would have offered free public school education to students from all the districts was literally shocked on Tuesday when the Union Government told the Madras High Court that the curriculum offered by the Navodaya Vidyalaya and its policy was in consonance with the education policy of the State.

M Venkiteswaran, the Central Government representative, told the court on Tuesday that the Navodaya Vidyalaya in Puducherry has been functioning without any hindrance. “The syllabus and curriculum of Navodaya Vidyalaya is in consonance with Tamil Nadu Government’s rules and laws concerning school education. In Puducherry Navodaya Vidyalaya, Tamil is the medium of instruction up to 8th standard. In Classes IX and X, Tamil is compulsory while in 11th and 12th standards Tamil is optional. This is the system followed in all States across the country where more than 600 such schools are functioning successfully,” Venkitewaran told the Bench of Justice KK Sasidharan and Justice GR Swaminathan, hearing a petition filed by a group of educationists asking for a directive to the State Government to allow Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country which does not have a single Navodaya Vidylayas because of the Dravidian parties’ deep-rooted hatred for Hindi. Kumari Maha Sabha, a group of educationists had approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court with a plea to direct the State Government to set up Navodaya Vidyalays in Tamil Nadu so that children from rural areas would get the kind of education offered by Kendriya Vidyalays and residential public schools.

The Government Pleader, in an affidavit filed before the Madras High Court in June  had stated that setting up of Navodaya Vidyalayas would lead to the imposition of Sanskrit on Tamil Students. The Government pleader had told the court that Navodata Vidyalays were not welcome in Tamil Nadu as it violated the Tamil Nadu Tamil learning Act.

“Tamil Nadu has the dubious distinction of not having a single Navodaya Vidyalaya in the State under the pretext of the politicians’ love for Tamil. This is unfortunate and violation of fundamental right of the children. The State which has the responsibility in helping the poor children to get quality education is denying them the rght for political reasons,” said the principal of a Navodaya Vidyalaya while rerating to the State’s stance on the subject.

The JNV, launched in 1985 as a scheme under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development , envisages making quality education imparted in the elite public residential schools in the country available to poor sections of the society in rural areas.

This is the first time a petition is filed against the Tamil Nadu Government’s stance against the Navodaya Vidyalala.