Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai, while speaking at his En Mann En Makkal padayatra in Coonoor of Niligiris district on 28 September said that because of the opposition of the state’s politicians to the 3-language policy, there is not a single Navodaya Vidyalaya in the state and this has resulted in meritorius students from poor and rural backgrounds being deprived of access to quality education being provided by the central government.

He said, “Nilgiris has many international schools which are not affordable for common citizens. Central government’s Navodaya schools deliver good educational standards. There are 625 Navodaya schools throughout India. 2,78,356 students study in these Navodaya schools. Out of them 89 per cent are from villages, 25.4 per cent of them belong to the Scheduled community.

Comparing the situation to other states in southern India, he said, “There is not even one Navodaya school in Tamil Nadu. Kerala has 14 Navodaya schools, Karnataka has 23, Andhra has 15 and Telangana has 9 schools.

“Navodaya schools provide good quality education to poor students”, he added.

Stating the reason for the state not having a single Navodaya Vidyalaya, he said that Tamil Nadu politicians have not allowed these schools for the single reason that these schools have a 3-language policy while they want to have a 2-language policy.

Speaking about whether education in the mother tongue is available in Navodaya Vidyalayas, he said, “Navodaya schools also have mother tongue as medium of instruction from sixth to eighth grades. If the Navodaya Vidyalaya is in Karnataka, the medium of instruction would be Kannada from sixth to eighth grades, if in Kerala, it would be Malayalam, from sixth to eighth grades.”

He then said that if the BJP was brought into power in Tamil Nadu, it would bring two Navodaya Vidyalayas to each district in the state.

During his speech, he also criticised senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Nilgiris MP A Raja for his remarks saying that Sanatana Dharma should have been compared to diseases with social stigma like leprosy and HIV and Udhayanidhi Stalin had been soft by comparing it to malaria, dengue and corona while calling for its eradication.