Gujarat to introduce chapter on Dhirubhai in school books

With a view to imbue students with entrepreneurship, Gujarat government is likely to introduce a chapter on Reliance Group founder Dhirubhai Ambani in school textbooks, officials said on Tuesday.

"Minister of Education (Bhupendrasinh Chudasma) put forth the idea in a recently held meeting attended by the office-bearers of the state textbook board that our children should be taught about lives and struggles of famous personalities, like Dhirubhai Ambani and others," Gujarat State School Textbook Board chief Nitin Pethani told PTI.

Later, he said, chapters will be included on the lives of other famous as well as the less-known personalities who made a contribution to society with their work.

"Apart from Dhirubhai Ambani, there are many unknown personalities who had given their best to the society in terms of industrial entrepreneurship, for example Devkaran Nanji, the founder of Dena Bank.

"Therefore on instructions of the minister (Chudasma), we have directed text-book officials to make a list of such eminent personalities which we are likely to add in the curriculum of standard IX to XII or we can also add it in the general knowledge books from standard VI to VIII," said Pethani.

The aim, besides to teach the spirit of entrepreneurship to the children, is to enlighten the students with the lives of eminent business personalities of Gujarat who made a name globally, he said.

However, the state government has not decided the time period by when the chapter will be included in the textbooks, he added.

Earlier, Gujarat government had also announced to add Yoga in the co-curriculum textbooks, said Pethani.

"We have been doing practicals of Yoga in our schools already, but we will soon prepare books on Yoga as the part of co-curriculum activities as per the guidance of Gujarat Council of Education Research and Training and the secondary education board," he said.

Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had announced on June 21 (International Yoga Day) that Gujarat government will introduce yoga as a regular practise in schools.

Image: Dhirubhai Ambani; Photograph: Savita Kirloskar/Reuters