Union education minister urges citizens to support Vidyanjali school education programme

NEW DELHI: Union Education and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday greeted the nation on the eve of Diwali and urged citizens to join the mass movement of 'vidya daan' by contributing to its initiative 'Vidyanjali'.

"The holy festival of Deepawali is also an occasion to dispel the darkness of ignorance with light. Let us share our knowledge and skills with others. Engage to Mass movement of education and knowledge donation for nation building- 'Vidyanjali'. This Diwali, Vidyanjali. #Vidyanjali," Dharmendra Pradhan said in a social media post.

दीपावली का पावन त्योहार उजाले से अज्ञान के अंधकार को भगाने का भी अवसर है।

आइए हम अपने ज्ञान और कौशल को दूसरों के साथ साझा करें।राष्ट्र निर्माण के लिए विद्या और ज्ञान दान के जनआंदोलन—‘विद्यांजलि’
से जुड़ें।

इस दीपावली , विद्यांजलि। #Vidyanjali pic.twitter.com/VnbHTlIYCM

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) November 3, 2021

The minister said the National Education Policy 2020 has given people the opportunity to focus on the spirit of sharing knowledge and expertise through "Vidyanjali".

"On such auspicious occasions, we celebrate the joy of 'giving' and 'daan' is the practice of cultivating generosity," he said. Talking about 'vidya daan', Pradhan in a video message said, "We all have certain expertise, skill and knowledge, which we can share with others. There's no better joy of giving, than giving that to our future generations."

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Pradhan urged everyone to support the initiative to ensure quality education to the children across the country. "We want to develop Vidyanjali in such a way that everyone can contribute to school education in some way or the other. I hope citizens from all walks of life will join this mass movement of 'vidya daan'," he added.

'Vidyanjali' is an initiative taken by the Ministry of Education with the aim to strengthen schools through community and private sector involvement in schools across the country. The initiative would connect schools with varied volunteers from the Indian diaspora namely, young professionals, school alumni, in service and retired teachers and government officials.

Recently, Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed the vaccination status of teachers as schools are reopening across the country. He also reviewed the vaccination status in the skilling ecosystem.

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He stressed upon the need to restore normalcy and vibrancy in the educational institutions in wake of rapid vaccination at scale happening in the country, an official statement read.

On October 23, the Ministry of Education sought a tentative timeline from central universities on achieving 100% vaccination of students and staff on the day the country achieved the 1 billion vaccine dose landmark, as per reports.

(With inputs from PTI)