India: Aam Aadmi party into value education; his education team has gone to Durg, Chattissgarh at a village school (Is there any RSS connection with this vedic education outfit ?)

The Indian Express

Sisodia takes his education team for ‘value education’

Manish Sisodia,education minister, delhi education The plan is to introduce the programme in Delhi’s schools to “help students become better citizens”, said a leader from Sisodia’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Written by Shikha Sharma | New Delhi | Published on:April 8, 2015 5:20 am

For five days now, top officials of Delhi’s education department have been absent from work. Reason: They have been busy marking their presence at a workshop in Chhattisgarh to learn about “a new way of value-based teaching”.

Among the “at least 40 officials” attending the seven-day ‘Madhyasth Darshan Jeevan Vidya’ course in Durg — on the orders of Education Minister Manish Sisodia — are the directors of Delhi’s education and higher education departments.

According to a state government order issued on April 1, the workshop from April 2-8 is being organised by the Manviya Shiksha Shodh Sansthan. A spokesperson for the organisation said Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, had been associated with them “since his days of social activism”.

The plan is to introduce the programme in Delhi’s schools to “help students become better citizens”, said a leader from Sisodia’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) .

Sisodia was unavailable for comment but his media advisor Arunoday Prakash confirmed that the “minister is in Chhattisgarh for a workshop” and added that he would return to Delhi on Wednesday.

Sources said that Sisodia joined his officers on Monday for the last three days of the workshop.

Sisodia has been an advocate of “value-based education”, having said last month, for instance, that crimes against women could be prevented by inculcating the right values in children at the school-level.

Yogesh Shastri, the organiser of the workshop being held in Achhoti village, said, “Since his days of social activism, Manish Sisodia has been associated with Madhyasth Darshan as a teacher. We believe that in the current scenario, education should be value and consciousness-based to equip the students better in dealing with life and relationships. The workshop, being presently attended by them, is only an introduction to expose them to a new way of value-based teaching in our schools.”

Asked about the presence of senior education officials from Delhi, Shastri said, “Now that he (Sisodia) is in a position where he can influence things, it was thought to introduce at least senior officials to the concept, and see where it goes from there. They were flown in on April 2. At least 40 people from Delhi are here.”

Jvidya.com, the official website of the school, defines Madhyasth Darshan as “a proposal to mankind for an undivided human society”.

Explained Shastri, “We have prepared 14 books through which we strive to teach everyone about co-existentialism. While in earlier classes, beginning from Class I till V, the thrust is on human relationships, in later years students are exposed to deeper questions about their mission, nature of reality, etc.,” Shastri added.

According to the website, the sansthan was founded by A Nagraj with the aim of “devising a new method of study” using “traditional Indian Vedic approaches of meditation”.

(With ENS/Raipur)