After facing much criticism from certain quarters and Opposition leaders about the decision to include mandatory dhyana (meditation) for all the students of schools and pre-university colleges in the State, Minister for School Education and Literacy B.C. Nagesh on Saturday took to Twitter to retort at the comments.
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Replying to a tweet made by Opposition leader Siddaramaiah questioning the priorities of the Education Department, Mr. Nagesh said, “It is unfortunate that you are trying to create confusion about a good idea like children meditating for 10 minutes for better mental and physical health, concentration and personality development.” He also said that it was ridiculous to say that yoga and meditation would hinder children’s skill development when researchers, scientists, and doctors had said the contrary.
While listing out the various measures rolled out by the present BJP government to bring in reforms and development in the education sector, like the first-of-its-kind learning recovery programme (Kalika Chetharike), implementation of the National Education Policy, provision for eggs in midday meals, Mr. Nagesh accused Mr. Siddaramaiah-led government of not doing much for educational development.
Besides Opposition leaders, several educationists in the State had also called the move to introduce meditation an “arbitrary decision” and an “attempt to saffronise education” in the guise of meditation.