NEW DELHI: While the entire nation, particularly the national capital, was gripped by unprecedented Gen Z protests seeking his resignation over the NEET-UG leak controversy, it was business as usual for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Pradhan delivered a fairly long address at a conclave of education ministers from states and union territories on Wednesday. Despite the widespread protests, he did not mention the paper leak or the ongoing protests by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and the students in his nearly 30-minute speech.
This was Pradhan’s first public appearance ever since the protests intensified on Monday at Jantar Mantar and spread across the country and the world. He chaired the event that took place at the ICAR National Agricultural Science Complex in the capital.
The speech was telecast live on online platforms. Pradhan’s X handle had the speech beamed live and it was viewed by nearly 90,000 people within two hours. In his speech, the education minister spoke on topics he generally touches upon in any meeting – the need to educate children up upto Class V in one’s mother tongue, the National Education Policy and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and the need for CBSE students to study three languages, two of them vernacular Indian languages.
“Many states have aligned their education with the NCF. There has been no compulsion from our side. It is upto the academia and the political powers in each state to take the call,” he said.
NCERT books have been revised up to Class IX this academic year and would be completed for Class X and XI the next academic year and for Class XII the following year, he added.
The minister added that it was important that all students learn about the latest trends in Science and Technology.
Skills, Physical Education and Arts have been important additions recommended by the New Education Policy of the Centre. “It is up to the states to include them for assessment in their Board exams or make it only as part of their internal assessment,” the minister added.