Right-wing educationist Dinanath Batra has said a new outfit named Shiksha Niti Aayog has been set up under the aegis of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas (SSUN) to assist the government in formulation of new education policy, notwithstanding the Centre's denial on saffronising education.
Batra’s claim comes within a month of Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani assuring Parliament that there was no attempt to saffronise education.
While the HRD Ministry is set to hold nationwide consultations to formulate the policy, the Sangh’s commission, set up last year, has already undertaken a similar exercise independently, reaching out to people who have the “right head” to make recommendations to the government on changes in the current education policy, former RSS pracharak Batra told Deccan Herald.
“We will participate in the process in a big way. We will have to help the government formulate a new education policy. At present, our education system is West-oriented. It is the need of the hour to change it to make it relevant for India and its growth,” he said.
SSUN co-founder Batra said about 500 seminars would be organised across the country over the next three years to make people aware of the current education system's drawbacks, and get vital suggestions on how to make it relevant for the country. “While the government will do its work, our society will do its own work. We will consult people who are right-head and have an intuitive mind, in order to formulate our recommendations,” he said.
Asserting that Vedas and Upnishads were storehouses of wisdom, the octogenarian said he had suggested the government to consider modernising the “ancient wisdom” and incorporating it in the curricula.
“Vedas, Upnishads and the Bhagvad Gita are storehouses of wisdom. Take valuable contents from them and incorporate them in the curricula for the benefit of the country’s students,” he said
Batra said the sum and substance of various shlokas and verses written in Sanskrit in Hindu scriptures should be translated in modern languages, including all the scheduled languages of India, and presented in the form of story, poetry or drama to students, instead of making the learning arduous for them by asking them to just read and memorise Sanskrit texts.