NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mysuru: The ninth National Yoga Olympiad (NYO) will start at the Regional Institute of Education (RIE) of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), in Mysuru, on Tuesday.
Addressing a media conference at RIE, here, on Monday, NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said, over 400 students and over 100 teachers are participating in the three-day NYO 2024.
“International Yoga Day is being celebrated since 2015, on June 21, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspired the international community to do Yoga. NYO is being held from 2016. It was an online version in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I joined as NCERT Director in 2022. We wanted to decentralise NYO thus and started holding it outside Delhi. In 2023, it was held in the RIE of Bhopal. Now, it is the turn of RIE-Mysuru,” he said.
Saklani said, Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot will inaugurate the NYO 2024 at the Convocation Hall of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), on Hunsur Road, in Mysuru. “Later, the Olympiad will be held on the premises of RIE-Mysuru. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected to be part of the valedictory function of NYO 2024, on June 20, Thursday, at Technology Quadrangle of RIE-Mysuru. However, participation of Secretary for School Education and Literacy Sanjay Kumar is confirmed,” he said.
He said, the theme for NYO 2024 is ‘Yoga for Self and Society’. “Initially, NYO witnessed participation of students from all government and government-aided schools of all States and Union Territories, including national-level agencies like Kendriya Vidyalay Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samithi, National Education Society for Tribal Students, Central Board of Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, Vidya Bharathi Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sangatan and Demonstration Multipurpose Schools of RIEs,” Saklani said.
NYO is an inclusive event and the students are selected in the district-level and they participate in the state-level to reach the national level, he added.
RIE principal Y Sreekanth, coordinator Kalpana Venugopal and S Nagaraja were present in the media conference.