He makes it clear constitutional provisions on education won’t be tweaked

Saying that consultations are still on the New Education Policy, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Centre has no plans to take away the rights of religious minorities.

Mr. Javadekar was delivering the keynote at the National Convention of the Pune-based NGO Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana here on the topic, ‘Challenges of School Education in India’.

“Let me make it very clear, because perceptions make a very different scenario. We have not — the Cabinet has not — cleared any policy draft of the New Education Policy: it is in the making. There were inputs which were published. Some people or organisations thought that is the New Education Policy - it is not,” the Minister clarified.

“They started protests in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Minority education, they thought, will be taken off. We do not want to tinker with the constitutional provisions on education. We want to encourage all kinds of education, but that has to be meaningful,” he said.

Mr. Javadekar said over 100 Members of Parliament were scheduled to attend a dialogue on education called by him on November 10 and that he had published articles in 16 regional languages to get the word on the NEP across.

“Education is not a political agenda, education is a national agenda and we will take everybody along. Today, there are many people here who are engaged in Jain educational activities. The Constitution has provided for certain freedoms and provisions for minority institutions,” he said.

Calling for the community’s support in improving education, the Minister pointed out that the current education policy was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.