New Education Policy's Hindi push, Javadekar rubbishes reports

New Delhi, Jan 10: Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has rubbished the reports claiming that the New Education Policy (NEP) has recommended making Hindi mandatory till Class 8 across the country.

Javadekar termed such media reports as "mischievous and misleading" and said the committee on New Education Policy in its draft report has not recommended making any language compulsory.

Imposing Hindi on non-Hindi states is a contentious issue in the country. Hindi isn't compulsory at schools in many non-Hindi-speaking states, such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, West Bengal and Assam.

An Indian Express report had earlier claimed that Hindi would be made a compulsory subject till Class 8 as per the recommendation of K Kasturirangan committee set up to draft the policy.

"The Committee on New Education Policy in its draft report has not recommended making any language compulsory. This clarification is necessitated in the wake of mischievous and misleading report in a section of the media," Javadekar tweeted.

The Indian Express further said that the proposed NEP also advocates developing a syllabus for upto Class 5 in local languages, such as Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, etc., in areas where they are spoken.

DMK's A Sarvanan said that any attempt by the Centre to impose Hindi would be opposed by his party. A News 18 report quoted Sarvanan as saying that 'just because the majority of the people speak Hindi, it does not mean other states who don't speak the language must also learn it'.