Draft National Education Policy 2016 by RSS ideologue and former educationist Dinanath Batra has recommended education in Hindi, the mother language, while shifting English to number three.
While presenting the recommendations for the New Education Policy (NEP) at a seminar at Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College on Saturday, Batra called for an autonomous “Education Commission at par with the Election Commission”.
BJP national general Secretary Arun Singh, who was also present at the seminar, said Hindi must be taught in every corner of the country as he stated examples of language barrier in connecting with people across the country.
“Education should be imparted in mother language across the country. Hindi or Sanskrit should be the second languages while English could be on number three... There should be an education commission which could be an advisory body, represented by the people with educational work background, to look at matters in education,” state the recommendations of Batra's right-wing educational activist organization, Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas.
“During the recent National Executive meeting of the BJP in Kerela, we realised people in the villages of South India are intelligent but they refuse to communicate with us. This is because they do not understand Hindi...it is necessary that Hindi must be taught in the entire country,” said Singh.
Criticising the current educational administrative set-up, Batra called for a revamp in appointing the officials, dealing with the education. “Civil servants who serve in department of health or other area have been deputed as directors of education. This trend should change because education must be dealt by those who have an experience in it,” he said.
He also said former vice-chancellor and senior educationists for the posts in education departments.
Saying that “idle youth could become devils, Batra said “social service of three months” must be made compulsory at secondary level in schools.
While Batra suggested for a small scale university across the rural belt in India, the secretary of his organisation Atul Kothari said that it was necessary to make changes in the texts of India mainly the History books.
“People like Srinivas Ramanujan are nowhere in the History books of India while unconstitutional words are used. There is no mention of true history. So, we want to change the curriculum,” said Kothari.
He also highlighted drawbacks in the TSR Subramaniun committee that was formed to draft recommendations for the NEP 2016. He said while environmental studies were “compulsory” in the curriculum as per the Supreme Court recommendations, the Subramaniun committee had not mentioned it anywhere.