To promote value based ancient Gurukul education system in the state, Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday announced to provide land free of cost to those Gurukuls which would provide free education to children.

Besides, it would also assist in making all necessary arrangements required to run such Gurukuls including the teachers he said while speaking in a programme on ‘Relevance of the Gurukul system in the present era’ organised by Panchnad Shodh Sansthan, Chandigarh.

A gurukul is a traditional school in India with students (shishya) live near their guru, often in the same dwelling, as a sort of family. While underlining the significance of Gurukuls in providing education based on renunciation and dedication to the children, the CM said that instead of confining just to the 3R (reading, writing, and ‘arithmetic), the moral values, yoga, patriotism should be made a part of the education system for the overall development of children.

He said that as per the ancient system, it was the moral responsibility in our society to provide facilities of health and education to the people free of cost but ironically today on one hand the common man lacked ample resources to get these facilities, the resourceful or rich people spent immense wealth for such facilities.

Khattar said that the state government has taken several steps for bringing about a qualitative change in the education system. A major chunk of the state budget is spent on providing free education to the children.

Now, the state government has also constituted a 21 members State Higher Education Council under the Chairmanship of Prof BK Kuthiala, to create an enabling environment for promoting academic excellence.

Khattar also advocated abolishing the no detention policy for class first to eighth in schools saying that the system has adversely affected the studying habit of students as they have no fear of failing in the examinations. He said that Haryana has made its mark in the various spheres world over.

Earlier, the Gita Jayanti Samaroh was organised in Kurukshetra at a much smaller scale. The present state government has been organising Gita Jayanti Samaroh of international level.

People from 25 countries have participated in the Samaroh during the last three years. He said that this year, programmes of Gita Jayanti Samaroh would also be organised in Mauritius and United Kingdom (UK).