Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has assured a delegation of senior Christian leaders who met him in New Delhi recently to discuss the Draft National Education Policy (DNEP) that he would consider their demand.
The delegation demanded for constitution of a special committee to go into the objections raised and suggestions given by various religious minorities concerning the new education policy.
Pokhriyal said the date for submission of comments on the DNEP had been extended by a fortnight till mid-August and the State Governments had been told to translate the massive draft into regional languages, a release issued here by the Utkal Christian Council (UCC) said.
The delegation said that a special committee was needed to go into the specific demands of religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims, which were numerous. They said that the policy to be formulated should be forward- looking and take into account the state of knowledge, economy and employment forty to fifty years from now, the release said. The Minister said he had set up ten groups to study over 70,000 suggestions that had been made and each group would look into specific issues.
The delegation that called on Pokhriyal comprised Dr John Dayal, Father Sunny Jacob, Dr Michael Williams, Bibhu Datta Das, Rev. Vijayesh Lal and Greg Mann, an MLA from Uttarakhand.
The meeting was preceded by a two-day National Christian Consultation in New Delhi on July 29 and 30 organised for an in-depth study and analysis of the voluminous DNEP report in response to the HRD Ministry’s invite for feedback and comments. It was jointly organised by the All India Catholic Union, Evangelical Fellowship of India, Baptist Church Trust Association, Utkal Christian Council, United Christian Forum and United Christian Action.
The consultation arrived at the conclusion that the overarching concern was that the DNEP 2019 should be subject to the Constitution of India and all articles related to the protection and rights of the minorities and it must not contravene or transgress the precedents of established law, especially the Supreme Court judgments relating to education, the release said. PNS