New Delhi: Amid reports of Sanskrit being made compulsory for class 1 students in Gujarat, the state education minister Jitu Vaghani denied the claims on Tuesday. He said that he has no information about such claims. This comes after several media reports claimed that the Rashtriya Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has demanded to make Sanskrit a compulsory subject for class 1 students.
Vaghani refuted the media reports and said that he has not received any such demand and there is nothing like that. According to an ANI report, the Gujarat state education minister said, "I don't know about it. I have not received any such demand. There is nothing like that."
According to several media reports, the RSS and its affiliates met with the Education Minister Jitu Vaghani, senior officials of the department, and the organisational general secretary of Gujarat BJP, Ratnakar in April to discuss the implementation of the NEP, where they pitched this demand.
The reports said that sanskrit teaching was the primary thrust of nearly 20 representatives of the affiliate organisations of RSS, which includes Vidya Bharati, Shaikshik Mahasangh, Samskrita Bharati, and Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal.
The report further stated that the RSS representatives have asked the state government to allocate at least six periods for Sanskrit every week. The organisation demanded a special preference for Sanskrit stating that schools should “teach best English but not at the cost of Indian languages"
Some publications also said that the suggestion of the Sangh is not limited to school education, as it has suggested that Gujarati should be taught as the first language, Sanskrit as the second and the government can decide which one should be offered as a third language option in secondary and higher education.