india

Updated: Jul 23, 2019 05:48 IST

The Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM), an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that works in the area of education, wants the Union government to merge the ministries of human resource development (HRD) and culture because it believes this will help the cause of a truly Indian curriculum.

On its website, the organisation, founded in 1969, defines its objective as “a national resurgence in education” and says it wants to create a “National Education Policy, Curriculum, System &Methodology based on integral Bharatiya vision, rooted in its eternal ethos and centred at overall development of the country”.

BSM has suggested renaming the clubbed ministry as the ministry of education. The suggestion to rename the HRD ministry as the ministry of education was also aired in the draft national education policy put together by a committee under the chairmanship of scientist Dr K Kasturirangan, and released by HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in May.

In a 19-point wish-list, conveyed to the Union government through an information interaction, BSM has said that since there are about 150 institutes under the ministry of culture that also provide education in the field of art, it makes eminent sense for the two ministries to be clubbed.

“At the time of Independence, the department of culture was under the ministry of education; this was later changed during the 1980s when the ministry of HRD was carved out. Bringing the two ministries together will make the process of imparting education and culture more reflective and complete,” said a functionary of BSM who asked not to be named.

A senior official in the HRD ministry said the ministry is yet to formally receive the proposal from the offshoot. However, Neera Chandhoke, a former professor of political science in Delhi University, said the suggestion mooted is worrying.

“The objective of education is to enable students to critically engage with history, culture and the present, not to further the power of the dominant groups; this will impair their ability to be reflective human beings. The merger is a terrible idea.”

The offshoot of the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, has also been pushing for including cultural heritage and practices, including ancient Indian texts such as Natyashastra and Nyaya Shastra, in the curriculum; making research India-oriented; imparting early education in local languages; and making Sanskrit mandatory till class 8.

Some of these ideas are similar to those pronounced by scientists and policy makers. For instance, K Vijay Raghavan, the principal scientific adviser to the government, has previously written on the need to teach technical subjects in local languages. “If you do not use or have a mastery over your native language in science and technology, then, mere facility makes you a great follower and never a leader,” he wrote in 2017 in Hindustan Times.

“We are not against the teaching of English; but there is a need to impart education in the mother tongue at an early stage and even in Hindi for professional courses such as engineering. Similarly, under the three-language formula, English and the official language of the state are compulsory in schools; so a lot of students end up not opting for Sanskrit,” the BSM functionary added

Among other suggestions which BSM — it is organising a conclave of vice chancellors (VCs) and educationists from higher education institutions on Saturday in the national capital — wants the government to consider ahead of firming up the new national policy on education is the creation of an apex body for education, the national education commission, headed by the Prime Minister, and with an eminent personality as the deputy chairperson.

While BSM says such a commission with greater autonomy should have powers over the executive, Chandhoke wants education to be “in the hands of educationists who are responsible to their peer group”. The BSM functionary said that since VCs will play a crucial role in implementing the new education policy, the upcoming conference will help identify priority areas in the space.