NEW DELHI (TIP): The government has assured a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate that a raft of suggested changes– including scrapping English as a mandatory language and banning references that insult India or eminent personalities – will be considered when the new education policy is formed.

A report in the Indian Express on Friday said the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas (SSUN) has written to the government with proposals for the new policy that is to be announced soon.

The suggestions 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 SSUN is also pushing for Indian language teaching in IIT, IIM and NITs.

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.

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.

The incident is likely to bolster charges that the BJP-led government is trying to influence the education policy to push its agenda. Source: HT

Source: PTI