Curriculum
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, minister of state for youth affairs and sports (independent charge), suggested at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which advises the Centre and state on policy decisions, that fitness and sports should be included in the school curriculum .
Experts welcomed the move towards a single inclusive curriculum.
“The i nter-disciplinary approach is integral to education and is not something new. It can certainly help the child view the world as a holistic entity,” said Ameeta Wattal, principal of the Pusa Road branch of Delhi’s Springdales School. “It is not about creating Picassos but inculcating an ability to appreciate arts, music and sports...such activities will bring a completely different dimension to the mind and bring in imaginary thoughts that will make children happier.”
HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has been emphasising the fact that apart from academic education, students should acquire life and creative skills. properties and personnel, officials said.
The Indians maintained there was a “continuous pattern” to this harassment. Membership to certain Islamabad clubs, open to all diplomats, were not being given to those from India, said one of the officials quoted above.
Meanwhile, a Pakistan foreign official, who asked not to be named, pointed to incidents over the past three days in which the children of Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner were stopped on their way to school, and a car of another diplomat was “chased and scratched”.
The official quoted above, who said that the Pakistan high commission had sought a meeting with the ministry of external affairs this week, alleged that a total of six incidents of harassment were reported by Pakistani diplomats in a span of three days.
Ties between India and Pakistan have been particularly strained over the last few months over increased ceasefire violations across the Line of Control and the treatment meted out to an Indian prisoner in Pakistan Kulbhushan Jadhav.
The latest row came at a time when the two sides were looking to break the ice by exchanging prisoners – women, the elderly, and the mentally feeble – being held in each other’s countries.