News
RSS wishes to make formal proposals for New Education Policy at seminar: HRD minister to attend
In what is viewed as an attempt to saffronise education, the RSS is organising a seminar at Constitution club to formally make proposals to the HRD minister. It may see protest by the Opposition and education activists.
In what could be an attempt by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to influence India’s new Education Policy, it is making preparations to pressurise the government for inclusion of suggestions like, compulsory daily prayers in schools and colleges.
The Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM), an affiliate of the RSS, is organising a seminar next Tuesday at the Constitution club to discuss the proposals.
Union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar will attend the function as one of the speakers in probably his first public discussion after assuming office of the education minister.
Others who are expected to attend are Muralidhar Rao, the BJP national general secretary and former NCERT director JS Rajput, who was in the news in the past for alleged saffronisation of the school curriculum.
“The HRD ministry has made some parts of the policy public and we will discuss the policy with experts and give our suggestions too,” said Mukul Kanitkar, organizing secretary of the BSM.
It is expected that the Opposition will become active as they will see as an attempt to saffronise education.
The HRD ministry was already forced to revise the draft education policy formulated by the TSR Subramanian committee when it ran into controversy last month over its suggestions to curb campus politics.
It is said that the Bharatiya Shiksha Mandal had given a number of suggestions to the committee, but many of them didn’t find a place in the policy draft.
“Now that the ministry is giving a final shape to the policy, all significant issues that have not been taken care of will be discussed at the forum,” said a source.
Besides daily prayers, the BSM also wants students to pay tributes to Indian heroes. They want an 8-year general education plan and propose that the government should fund NGOs that teach children up to Class VIII.
Another significant suggestion in the draft policy is bringing minority institutions under the fold of the Right to Education Act (RTE), under which 25% seats are reserved for poor students.
The BSM had said minority-run institutions misuse the privilege given to them by the Constitution and often admit more students from the majority community.