New Delhi: Human Resource and Development minister Smriti Irani today announced that the Modi government will bring a new education policy before the public by May 26.
"Under the new education policy, NCERT will address all those challenges facing the education system, as even students ask me we know more about Renaissance but not about Maharana Pratap", she added.
Smriti Irani was speaking at the Mega Conclave 'Samvaad' organised by India TV ro assess the performance of two years of Modi government.
Responding to a query on the JNU controversy, Smriti Irani said her ministry never meddled in the affairs of the university.
“ There are two words in English - innuendo and second word which has a political message is ‘planted news’. These two words have impacted my achievements, she said.
Irani said, “ I think people understand that I cannot drag somebody to the court as law and order is not under the jurisdiction of the MHRD.”
“The matter"(JNU) is sub-judice and as in-charge of this Ministry I believe it will be incorrect to make any statement at this juncture. Whoever has made this case (sedition) should now prove the charges before the judiciary. Another truth in the matter is that if you see the bail order copy of the court, the judge has expressed sentiments that reflect the voice of the people. The statement made in the judgment copy was not of mine, it was of a judge.”
On the death of Dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, she said, "whatever I have spoken in public domain I substantiated them in Parliament with facts and it was the reason that privilege motion against me was not taken up.”
The Minister also took swipe at Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi, saying that the series of letters between university and lawmakers he was referring to also had the name of his partymen.
Answering a question over PM Narendra Modi’s degree row, the minister said that if you approach a university as a third party it is the responsibility of the varsity to protect the privacy of the candidate.”
“ But when this issue came up in public domain, our party president willingly released the PM’s marksheet and even the university has confirmed that the documents are genuine.”
On charges of saffronization in education, the Minister said, “Had it been someone else from the party as HRD minister, even he would have faced the same allegations.”
Underlining the need to spread technical education, Irani said, under government’s ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyaan', the IITs, IIMs and central universities have adopted five villages in 90 districts across the country to boost education and technical know how.
She also appealed to private institutes to emulate the government’s intiative.
Speaking on the new detention policy, the minister said, it’s a huge challenge as students are promoted to class 8 without any obstacle and then in class ninth and tenth they are failed suddenly.”
“Even this apprehension has been shared by different state governments.” she said.
She also said that the education advisory board represented by ministers of state governments has suggested to put an end to this policy.
The minister also said that even though the allegations of saffronization of education keeps coming up, the national curriculum frame which was devised in 2005 has not been changed.
