The state government of Uttarakhand has announced that it will include the Bhagavad Gita, Vedas and Upanishads in the school curriculum. The Uttarakhand Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat mentioned the implementation of religious texts in the syllabus for the coming academic year and also said that the students will be taught about the history and geography of the state.
The National Education Policy (NEP) asks schools to establish curricula based on Indian history and traditions. Following this example, Uttarakhand is now considering adding Gita, Vedas and Upanishads to the school curriculum.
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“We are going to implement NEP in the coming session this year, Uttarakhand will be the first state to implement it. We will include Vedas, Gita, Ramayana and the history of Uttarakhand in the syllabus,” Rawat told ANI.
He went on to say that these changes will be made after consultation with academics and the public in general. He said that inclusion is not possible without taking into account public opinion.
Under the theme of ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’, NEP says that all pedagogy and curriculum, starting from the foundational stage, will be restructured and redesigned to be deeply rooted in Indian culture and local context and ethos.
Rawat made the announcement at Doon University, where he arrived Sunday for the inauguration of Pariksha Parv, organized by the State Commission on Children’s Rights. According to Rawat, a proposal to include Gita and Vedas in the syllabus would be discussed on Monday, May 2.
NEP allows governments to select about 30 to 40 percent of the syllabus to be taught in the schools in their region. This allowed not only Uttarakhand but also many other states to offer subjects of their choice. Currently, the Bhagavad Gita is part of the syllabus in schools of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh states.
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