NCERT courses on ‘culture’ soon
Necessary to understand Bharat and its glorious past: Minister
New Delhi, Aug. 28: The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) would work upon certain courses about history of India’s tradition and culture, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Monday.
He was speaking while inaugurating a lecture series on Bharat Bodh (Idea of India) organised by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM).
“Bharat’s (India’s) education system became such that we kept on forgetting Bharat’s culture and insisted on remembering the rest of the world’s.”
“It is necessary to know and remember the world but this does not imply that we can forget Bharat. It is necessary to understand the Bharat and its glorious past,” Mr Javadekar said.
“We will replicate such courses with NCERT because we think our true identity begins with the identity of our nation. Without knowing it, we will not be able to decipher the truth about the world. We are open to discussions about the value of our past,” he said.
The minister said all philosophy and Indology students should attend this lecture series and added that people did not know about India and they should know the true identity of their country.
“We will soon launch a new formal academic programme called certificate course in Bharat Bodh. This will talk about the cultural wealth of India and will also take a critical look at it,” IGNOU vice-chancellor Ravindra Kumar said.
Mr Kumar said everything would not be taken for granted but critically examined and whatever was valuable would be retained.