Asserting that there should neither be imposition nor opposition to any language, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday called upon people to learn as many languages as possible. His remarks came during his interaction with a group of students, who had returned recently after visiting NASA and other places in the US. “India is blessed with many languages and students and teachers should give importance to promoting mother tongue while learning other languages,” he said. Recently, a controversy erupted over Home Minister Amit Shah’s call to culturally unify India with Hindi as its national language. He had said that while unity in diversity is India’s defining trait, a common language is needed as a culturally unifying factor. The Vice President called for revamping the education system and said it must that student enjoy schooling. “Revamping the curriculum is needed to focus on aspects that make a child curious, creative, caring, communicative, confident and capable,” Naidu said. He suggested that the new education policy must focus more on Indian history and cover the contributions made by freedom fighters from different parts of the country. “There are many great stalwarts, who were at the forefront of the fight against the colonial rule. Our children must learn about them,” he said. Stressing the need to allocate 50 per cent of schooling hours outside classrooms to enhance the physical fitness of the students, the Vice President cautioned the students about the growing incidents of non-communicable diseases due to unhealthy lifestyle practices and food habits. Naidu advised students to shun junk food and adopt healthy dietary habits as Indian food was time-tested and prescribed according to the seasons and regions. He also advised school administrations to encourage students to take part in voluntary services such as NSS, NCC, Scouts and Guides as they instil the spirit of volunteerism and service in them.
