Nearly one lakh schools shut after NEP 2020 rollout: Manik Sarkar

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Former Governor Banwarilal Purohit and G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, VIT, University, handing over a Navalar and Era. Sezhiyan awards to V.V. Swaminathan, Former Minister of Tamil Nadu and Manik Sarkar, Former Chief Minister of Tripura, at VIT University in Chennai on Saturday. | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

Ever since the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was implemented, nearly one lakh public schools have closed down across the country, former Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar, said on Saturday (August 29, 2026).

In his acceptance speech after receiving the Era. Sezhiyan Award conferred by the Navalar-Sezhiyan Trust at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in Chennai, Mr. Sarkar said that while public schools were shutting down, private ones were mushrooming, leaving students from the lower economic strata with no scope to pursue education. Similarly, in the health sector too, private capital has been expanding while public investment has been shrinking.

“The betterment of health and education are mutually dependent. Health services are also one of the core services that the government should entirely take liability of,” he said. Larger sections of people, he maintained, were dependent on government hospitals while the government was trying to get rid of this liability and open up avenues for private capital.

Quoting a NITI Aayog report of 2025, he said that the rate of unemployed graduates in India was 13% of the total population. For youth who have passed secondary education, the rate of unemployment was 29% to 40%. He said NITI Aayog had observed that there is a wide gap between the number of educated youth and the scope of jobs befitting their qualification. “If such a valuable workforce of our country is left unutilised, can anybody expect the country to march forward,” he asked.

G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, VIT, said that education goes a long way in improving the per capita income of individuals. He said VIT has supported about 1,200 rural students with free education and placement. Elaborating, he said that for batches between 2008 and 2021, the average income of the students went up from ₹8,600 when they were students to ₹1.10 lakh when they were employed. He said the State and union governments should spend more money on education so that people from the middle class and the poor will have access to higher education that will increase the per capita income of those families.

V.V. Swaminathan, former Tamil Nadu minister and Member of Parliament, who was conferred with the Dr. Navalar award, recalled his association with Navalar Nedunchezhiyan, Era Sezhiyan, and K.