New Delhi: The education ministry will work with the defence ministry to include tales of valour of India’s soldiers in the last 75 years into school curriculum and textbooks, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.
“To strengthen the sense of ‘responsibility towards the nation’ from an early age, the education ministry in consultation with defence ministry will also work to include the valour of our soldiers and India’s veer gatha in the last 75 years into the school curriculum and our textbooks,” Pradhan said.
He was addressing the gathering at the awards ceremony for 25 winners of the “Veer Gatha” contest (Super 25) here.
Veer Gatha, one of the projects launched as a part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav‘ was organised to inspire and spread awareness among children about the gallant deeds and sacrifices of the Armed Forces.
In the nationwide contest held between October 21 and November 20, 2021, more than 8.04 lakh students from 4,788 schools were encouraged to share inspirational stories through essays, poems, drawings and multimedia presentations.
After several rounds of evaluation, 25 students were selected and declared as “Super 25”.
“Super 25 and Veer Gatha Project has brought out young India’s patriotism and respect for our heroes in the most creative ways. It is an attempt towards developing strong patriotic fervour and a sense of gratitude towards our bravehearts,” the minister said.
“The education ministry will soon develop an institutional mechanism for awarding academic credits for certificates received under this initiative,” he added.
The education minister also suggested that the contest be renamed as “Sena Super 25” in the honour of the country’s soldiers.
“This time Super 25 was conducted among 8 lakh students across 5,000 school and we will work to take this initiative to all schools in India and to over 1 crore students going forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said when he was going through the entries for the Super 25 contest, he realised that children from across the country are “tied with the same thread of patriotism”.
“When I go among kids, I experience and live ‘present’ and ‘future’ at the same time. Whatever you have written about our brave soldiers, I have tried to know and understand it. I am sure that whoever sees your entries would be happily surprised that our children are so creative,” he said.
“When I was going through the entries, I realised that whether that child is from north India, south India, east India or west India, everyone is tied with the same thread of patriotism,” he added.
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