New Delhi: Human resources development minister Smriti Irani on Sunday dismissed the charge that the country’s education system was being “saffronised”, and rejected demands for Sanskrit to be made compulsory in the curriculum.
“Those who accuse me of being an RSS mascot or an RSS representative, possibly want to deflect attention from the good work we have done...I am ready for it. I have no problem,” the minister said.
Referring to the decision to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in around 500 Kendriya Vidyalayas, Ms Irani said the teaching of German under an MoU signed in 2011 violated laws.
“An investigation has been launched to find out how the MoU was signed,” she said.
The minister said the three-language formula was clear. Any of the 23 Indian languages listed in Schedule 8 of the Constitution could be opted for.
“We are teaching French, we teach Mandarin, we teach German the same way. I can’t understand why people don’t understand what I’m saying,” she said
Ms Irani said while rolling back the Four Year Undergraduate Programme of Delhi University, she never had in mind which region or religion they (the students) had come from.
Talking about the moves to have a new national education policy, she said the exercise would be exhaustive in nature and involve all stakeholders, besides academics and experts.
Asked about the demands for re-introduction of Class X board examinations, Ms Irani said that the decision has to be taken by CABE.
Meanwhile, the minister said that she also appeared in an interview to get her children admitted to a Delhi school. “I think processes should not differ just because you are a minister.
This is a job, a responsibility, not a right to override the processes that every citizen goes through. So I gave an interview with my husband,” got evaluated.” she said.
