The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reportedly pushed for Sanskrit to be made a required subject in the state’s schools starting in Class 1 during a meeting with the education minister of Gujarat and other department officials.
The meeting between the Sangh and state education minister Jitu Vaghani, education department officials and Ratnakar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organisational general secretary for Gujarat, took place in April this year on the topic of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, according to a report by the Indian Express.
The NEP, 2020 was the third such education policy in India and it was passed in July, 2020.
The NEP recommends making a student’s mother tongue/local language the primary medium of instruction until Class 5 and recommends that it be carried forward until Class 8 “wherever possible”.
As part of the Policy’s ‘three language formula’, two of the three languages a student learns in school should be native to India. While the draft policy states that the choice lies with both the school and the student, the extent to which the latter will be able to decide remains unclear.
Further, an earlier draft of the NEP had called for Hindi to be made compulsory until Class 8 in states where it is not spoken, but after intense protests from southern states, the provision was removed.
Since education is a legislative topic on the concurrent list, the provisions of the NEP are not binding and its implementation will be done through consultations between Union government departments and those of the state government too. The Union government had suggested the year 2040 as the deadline for the complete implementation of the NEP.
In the meeting, the RSS and its affiliate organisations pitched for the state government to dedicate at least six periods a week to teaching Sanskrit.
RSS-affiliates present in the meeting, like Vidya Bharati, Shaishik Mahasangh, Samskrita Bharati, Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal, are thought to have focused primarily on Sanskrit teaching during the meeting.
Beyond primary school education, the Sangh has reportedly sought for Gujarati to be taught as the first language and Sanskrit as the second in secondary and higher secondary education, leaving the third language to be chosen by the state government.
Further, it has sought to make Sanskrit compulsory in Class 11 and 12 for students seeking admission to Bachelors of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) programmes.
A member of the Sangh-affiliate Samskrita Bharati stated that the NEP is unclear on the role of Sanskrit in education and thus consultation on the issue is required.
The member also pointed out that even though the NEP says no language will be made mandatory, English is taught to all students.
According to the sources cited in the report, the RSS and the state government will hold a follow-up meeting on the NEP in July of this year.