Among the latest recommendations made in the new education policy, the government has assured a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate that scrapping English as a mandatory language and banning references that insult India or eminent personalities – will be considered when the new policy is formed.
An Indian Express report said the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas (SSUN) has written to the government and has suggested many changes in the education system, some of them include making the medium of instruction in schools the respective mother tongues, doing away with foreign language as an alternative to Indian languages and junking English as a mandatory subject.
The group also wants all government-funded research to be linked to “national requirements” and banning any textbook references that “insult Indian culture, tradition, sects, thoughts, eminent personalities and offer wrong explanations”, the Indian Express reported.
The founder of the organization, Atul Kothari, told the newspaper that human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar appreciated some of the suggestions and promised that the Centre would consider them.Along with pushing for Indian language teaching in IIT, IIM and NITs the SSUN also wants to remove any reference in text-books that “malign” culture.
An October 14 email by an HRD official said “suggestions given by you have been noted down. They will be discussed during the formation of the new education policy”, the Indian Express said.
This attempt will definitely be seen as an attempt to ‘saffronise’ education as it has been alleged time and again by the opposition.
