Dismissing the allegations that the BJP-led government at the Centre was saffronising the education system, Minister of Education, Government of India, Dharmendra Pradhan stated that the new policy, which was launched in the year 2020 for the education sector, is not only employment-oriented, it also encourages teaching in the mother tongue.
Before speaking to the reporters, the Union Minister was addressing intellectuals on the topic Saksham aur Vaibhavshali Bharat ke Nirman me nai Shiksha Neeti (Role of the New Education Policy in Making a Competent and Magnificent India) and shared that in the NEP, a special emphasis has been laid on studies in Indian languages, as stated in a report by PTI.
"Is it saffronisation to encourage studies in mother tongue in which the citizens of the country speak and hear? Is it saffronisation to make the Indian education policy employment-oriented?" the Union Minister said. This was in response to the question regarding the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) that the reporters had posed.
Without taking any names, Pradhan said how some people tend to have their "own viewpoint" on the NEP.
He reiterated that it was on the basis of several suggestions they received from different sections of the society that they agreed on the content and thus, the NEP was framed. He went on to claim that because of a few "political reasons" people were creating "confusion" around the NEP.
In the backdrop of the row erupting over imposition of Hindi, Pradhan also emphasised on how the government considers Indian languages as national languages and respects them all.
As per a report in PTI, the Union Minister also emphasised that the government considers all the languages of India, including Hindi, as "National Languages" and gives each and every one of them equal importance.
"Hindi is our Rajbhasha (for government work) and is an important language. But, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannad, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Odia, Bengali, Assamese and other Indian languages are also equally important. All these languages unite the country," Pradhan said.
When asked about the future of those students who have returned from war-torn Ukraine, the Education Minister said that it's a "global challenge".
While he insisted on teaching subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology in regional languages, he also clarified that the government has no objection if an Indian student wants to pursue education in English.
