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Sangh spice in school pizza- Mix of everyday issues and pet themes on survey list

Published On : 28 Sep 2015   |  Reported By : Courtesy : The Telegraph   |  Pic On: Photo credit : The Telegraph


New Delhi, Sept. 27: Are pizzas and burgers a barrier to Indian children's education, ideologues in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh want to know.

Those suppressing a smile could be missing the point, which may be less about these edibles' tendency to cause an upset stomach or obesity and more about their "nationalistic" bona fides.

That seems clear from some of the other questions on the Sangh's quiz for teachers and parents across the country, lurking among innocuous queries on the ideal length of school hours and tender worries about the weight of schoolbags.

"What should be the education system in India - Indian, western or global?" goes one question. "What are your suggestions towards making it nationalistic?" asks another.

The matter goes deeper than banishing "western" fast food from Indian schools. The goal is to collect feedback on how to "Indianise" the country's school curricula in time to provide inputs for the National Education Policy, expected early next year, sources suggested.

Anyone can send suggestions on the subject to the government, which need not accept any, but the thoroughgoing nature of the Sangh-driven exercise will allow it to claim that it reflects the national mood.

The Ahmedabad-based, Sangh-backed Punarutthan Vidyapeeth (Revival School) has prepared the two questionnaires of 10 queries each, one for teachers and the other for the parents of the pupils.

If some of the questions are at best a gentle nudge - "Do you want to educate your child in her mother tongue or English?" - some seem to be goading the respondent in a particular direction.

The teachers, shortly after being asked "Is education in India nationalistic?", are told: "The current education system in India is not nationalistic - what are your suggestions for making it nationalistic?"

Another asks how, not whether, research practices in India should change - at a time defence minister Manohar Parrikar has advised military researchers to "learn from the rishis who were probably great scientists".

A flurry has begun among educators loyal or sympathetic to the Sangh to extend the survey's reach.

"I received around 100 forms and have distributed them among teachers and guardians at my school and other private and public schools," said Devi Prasad Chaturvedi, principal of the Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

"We are planning a meeting of principals and teachers of all the schools in the district. Our aim is to have a nationalist education system in the country."

Sources at various government and private schools in Delhi confirmed to The Telegraph that many of their teachers had received the questionnaires from peers at Sangh-backed institutions or individuals linked to the parivar.

One of the first steps towards the effort had come in November, when the Vidyapeeth held a two-day conference on "Nationalist Education: Concept and Structure" at the Sangh's Nagpur headquarters.

Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat was the guest of honour at the event, where vice-chancellors, teachers, researchers and education activists discussed an "alternative school syllabus" focused on Vedic and moral education, Sanskrit, family values and vocational training.

"Around 50 forms were sent to me, which I have distributed among the teachers and guardians I know," said Gopal Prasad, convener of the RTI cell of the Sangh think tank Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, who was present at the November conference.

 

Ramendra Singh, director of the Vidya Bharti Samskriti Shiksha Sansthan at Kurukshetra, which runs a chain of schools in the country, said the organisation had begun discussions with teachers and guardians on how to fill the forms.

"These surveys are necessary. They will accommodate the opinions of all the stakeholders," Singh said.

Repeated calls to Vidyapeeth head Indumati Katdare, former national president of Sangh women's wing Rashtra Sevika Samiti, failed to fetch a response.

Days after the November event in Nagpur - whose avowed intents included severely editing accounts of Muslim rule in India and reducing the "dominance" of English - Katdare had told this newspaper teachers needed to be trained in "our ideology".

"We want to polarise the academia into our ideology because at the end of the day, they will be the ones teaching this Indianised curriculum to the students," she had said.

Katdare had tacitly acknowledged that the effort had gathered momentum because of the change of guard at the Centre. "The BJP and our organisation have similar mindsets. Other governments have put hurdles in our path; this government is unlikely to do so," she had said.

The Vidyapeeth (school), launched recently and yet to become operational, is run by the Punarutthan Trust, which claims to research Indian history and culture.

 







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