Kolkata, February 14 – Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday that West Bengal had lost central funds worth Rs 10,000 crore due to the state government's failure to implement the National Education Policy (NEP).
"Despite repeated requests, the National Education Policy was not implemented in West Bengal by the state government. The National Education Policy emphasizes education in the mother tongue, and in West Bengal, that would have been Bengali. The West Bengal government does not want to allow education in Bengali. If the National Education Policy had been implemented, additional funds would have been allocated to West Bengal under the Samagra Shiksha Mission," Pradhan said while addressing a teachers' conference organized by the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Saturday.
Pradhan also alleged that the West Bengal government refused to accept additional funds that the Union government had proposed to allocate for Jadavpur University.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Education Minister cited various statistics to argue that the education system in West Bengal had deteriorated during the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime in the state.
According to him, West Bengal accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the total schools in the country that do not have a single teacher. "The maximum number of teacher-less schools in the country is in West Bengal. The figure is around 4,000, which is almost 50 per cent of the national figure," Pradhan said.
He also criticised the West Bengal government over the lack of internet penetration in state-run schools. "Internet penetration in state-run schools is just 16 per cent in West Bengal, compared to the national average of 70 per cent. If the BJP comes to power in West Bengal after the 2026 Assembly elections, the education sector will be a key focus area," he said.
