Delhi Elections 2015: Smriti Irani promises massively open online courses for students

At Jamia Millia Islamia, minister for human resource development Smriti Irani began with an apology for her acid tongue, "Main maafi chaahti hoon mein thoda teekha bolti hoon". Irani had cut short a teacher reciting a couplet suggesting she's "haseen" (beautiful).

Chief guest at JMI's national symposium on Educating and Mainstreaming of Indian Muslims, she made no specific promises for Muslim youth--"I won't call them that," she said, "Hindi hai hum, Hindustan hamara"--but spoke of MOOC (mas sively open online courses), sought suggestions for the new education policy and said the government is trying to make all of secondary education free.

Organized by JMI and Muslims Youth for India, the symposium, meant to look into how the Muslim community fell behind in education and how they can be "mainstreamed", had the new chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University , Zafar Sareshwala, and scholars from across the country--a variety of councils and committees, attending as well.

Irani countered another speaker who'd suggested that the central funds for madrassa modernization may "lapse" this year. She informed that "nothing has gone in cold storage", that the files for a new policy are ready and signed but because of the election in Delhi, things are temporarily on hold. Akhtarul Wasey , national commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India, too made things a touch uncomfortable telling Irani "Muslim areas have fewer schools and more police stations." "You can't have a strong state by 2020 if 15-16% of the people are left behind," said Wasey .

Irani let those slide. She did ask the students of JMI to help as well. "If we take two steps, you should take half."

Wasey , on his part, expressed support and appreciation for her stand on the GermanSanskrit issue.

Speaking generally on education, she encouraged students to sign up for MOOCs that will be delivered free by the best institutes in the country . "We have been working on this over the last three months... After taking the course you can go to the examination centre, pass the exam and get a certificate," she explained.

The government is also "trying" to make all of K-12 education free, Irani said.The government is working on a new education policy and is seeking "suggestions from the citizens of all states." "Give us your suggestions on mygov.in and we'll include every citizen's input in the policy ," she promised.