The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on Monday has been officially renamed as the Ministry of Education (MoE) after the approval of the change of the name has been given by President Ram NathKovind.
A gazette notification published on Monday night said the President had given his assent to changing the name of HRD ministry to ministry of education.
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The heading ministry of human resources development stands substituted to ministry of education, it said.
The name change was among the key recommendations of the draft new National Education Policy (NEP), which was also cleared by the Union Cabinet in July.
The Ministry is held currently by Ramesh Pokhriyal and is divided into two departments- the Department of School Education and Literacy and the Department of Higher Education.
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While the Department of School Education and Literacy deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education deals with university education, technical education, scholarship, etc.
In 1985, the Ministry of Education was renamed as the HRD ministry when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister. The NEP was introduced in 1986 and was last amended in 1992.
A panel constituted by PM Modi-led government had first proposed that the Centre should change the name of HRD Ministry again to Ministry of Education.
The panel was tasked with working on the new NEP and was led by former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan.
In 2018, the idea to change the name of HRD Ministry was also proposed by Ram BahadurRai, chairman of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and also chairman of the joint organising committee of the Conference on Academic Leadership on Education for Resurgence.