In a landmark judgment, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered the Tamil Nadu Government to provide all infrastructure facilities to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development for launching Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State from the academic year 2018.
Justice K K Sasidharan an Justice G R Swaminathan demolished all arguments put forward by the Government of Tamil Nadu which literally played hide and seek game with the court by not furnishing counter arguments to the points raised by the petitioners who had sought a directive from the court to the State Government for opening Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State.
Tamil Nadu is the only State which had not allowed the opening of Navodaya Vidyalayas, a concept school launched in 1985 for the benefit of children in rural areas to get quality education in public school atmosphere. All States other than Tamil Nadu boast of Navodaya Vidyalayas offering Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus free of cost. The uniqueness of these schools are that they have been set up in the remotest places of each district in the country to aid and help rural children.
The Government of Tamil Nadu (both the AIADMK and the DMK) had opposed the idea of Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State because they argued that such schools imposed Hindi and Sanskrit over Tamil students.
The Government Pleader in his affidavit had shocked the court by stating that Hindi and Sanskrit were unwelcome in Tamil Nadu. The pleader also submitted before the court that the Navodaya Vidyalaya plan was not in agreement with the Tamil Nadu Education Policy which focussed on Tamil language.
But the Central Government stated in the court that the Navodaya Vidyalaya plan was in full agreement with the Tamil Nadu education Policy as it did not discriminate against Tamil. “Tamil is compulsory in Navodaya Vidyalala up to 10th standard. Similarly in other States, the respective language is compulsory up to 10th standard,” the Central Government said in its submission.
Interestingly, the State Government did not file reply to the submission by the Centre which upset the Court. When it was known that the State Government was dilly-dallying the issue, the Court delivered the knock out punch on Monday by directing the State Government to make all arrangements for the commencement of Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State from January 2018.
Many educationists and lawyers told The Pioneer that the governments which ruled Tamil Nadu all these years made unconscionable sin by denying quality education to the rural poor.
“Had theyopened Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State, all these controversies over the NEET would not have been there,” said Kallara Ajayan, eminent educationist ad principal of a Government Higher Secondary School.
The judgement by Justice Sasidharan and Justice Swaminathan means students in fifth standard in Tamil Nadu schools could look forward to join Navodaya Vidyalalays for quality education in public school ambience. The court directive is that the classes could begin even in safe sheds while works should begin at the earliest for constructing safe and spacious class rooms for Navodaya Vidylayas.