Hindi to be Made Compulsory Till Class 8? No Such Recommendation, Says HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi, January 10: Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Thursday rejected reports on a recommendation to make Hindi language compulsory till Class 8 in schools across the country. In a tweet following such reports, Javadekar said, "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." Make Hindi Compulsory Till Class 8: Committee on New Education Policy to HRD Ministry.

Earlier in the day, there were reports that a draft report, prepared by the nine-member K Kasturirangan committee on the New Education Policy (NEP), has recommended making Hindi language compulsory till class 8 across the country. The report in the Indian Express said that the committee asks the HRD Ministry to develop a script in Devanagari for tribal dialects and promote education based on hunar (skill). No Homework for Students of Class 1 and 2: HRD Ministry to Schools.

Prakash Javadekar's Tweet on Reports on Making Hindi Compulsory

As per the report, the committee members met representatives of Shiksha Samooh (Education Group) of RSS-linked organisations on December 20, and also held discussions with Javadekar. The committee emphasised on developing a syllabus for upto class 5 in local languages, such as Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, etc., in areas where they are spoken.

At present, Hindi isn’t a compulsory subject at schools in several non-Hindi-speaking states, such as Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, West Bengal and Assam.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2019 12:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).