Karnataka govt. forms expert committee to implement SEP recommendations, but only in higher education

The State government has appointed a five-member expert committee headed by the Principal Secretary of the Higher Education Department to examine and implement the recommendations related to higher education in the State Education Policy (SEP) final report, submitted to the government by the SEP Commission.

The vice-president of the Karnataka State Higher Education Council, the Commissioner of the Department of Collegiate and Technical Education and the Director of the Department of Technical Education are members of the committee, and the Special Officer of the Higher Education Department is the member-secretary.

The expert committee has been given two weeks’ time to submit its report to the government.

However, educationists have objected to the fact that no expert committee has been formed to implement the recommendations related to school education. “It is doubtful that the SEP will be implemented comprehensively,” one of them said.

The SEP Commission, headed by eminent educationist Sukhdeo Thorat, submitted the final report of the State Education Policy consisting of 2,197 pages to the government on August 9, 2025. The report made a total of 26 major recommendations related to primary education, 52 to higher education and 20 recommendations to professional education.

“The National Education Policy (NEP-2020) implemented by the Union government contains unscientific elements that are detrimental to the federal system and are against the Constitution and democracy. A uniform education system is not suitable for our multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. A new education policy will be formulated that includes social, cultural and economic realities to uphold the identity of the State, take higher education to a global level, provide job-based education to students and empower the youth socially and economically,” reads the order.

“As per the interim report submitted to the government by the SEP Commission, an order has been issued with appropriate guidelines regarding the duration and syllabus of degree programmes in universities and colleges under the jurisdiction of the Higher Education Department from the year 2024-25,” the order said.

Further, it stated that the government needs to take an appropriate decision after examining the recommendations in the final report given to the government by the SEP on social, educational, legal, administrative, economic issues and the draft actionable points, timeline, policy changes and amendments, responsible departments and funding.

Cut for print: * “Therefore, the following expert committee has been constituted to thoroughly examine the aspects related to the Higher Education Department in this report and prepare a brief report to the government so that it can be presented before the Cabinet,” it added.

The SEP Commission has made 26 major recommendations related to school education, including the two-language policy, Kannada/mother tongue medium of instruction up to class 5 in all board schools and others. Educationists have objected to the government move of not making any proposals regarding the implementation of the recommendations for school education.

“Currently, the NEP has been rejected in the State and the government has taken steps to implement the SEP. There is no education policy in existence in the State at present. But there is no sign of the SEP being implemented comprehensively as the government is moving ahead with the implementation of the SEP only in higher education,” they said.

Niranjanaradhya. V.P., development educationist, said, “Nearly 30 task force committees had worked hard for nearly two and half years to evolve a holistic State Education Policy. The policy report should be implemented in letter and spirit instead of implementing it in bits and pieces. The policy recommendations part could have been placed in the Cabinet for approval to discuss the policy document in the forthcoming legislative session. Then it would’ve been the State official policy document irrespective of political parties. We need a clear roadmap to implement the policy in toto.”

V. Rashmi Mahesh, Principal Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, said, “Many aspects of the SEP have already been adopted in school education system. Regarding the implementation of the remaining recommendations, a decision will be taken soon after discussing with the Minister of School Education.”