Panel proposes to include Yoga as a subject in NET

The Committee on Yoga Education in Universities has submitted a proposal to include yoga as a subject in the national eligibility test (NET) from this academic year onward, so that many prospective teachers will consider to opt yoga as a career.

Currently, yoga is taught as a discipline in 52 institutions across the country while only 16 institutions offer a Master's degree course in the discipline.

The committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's yoga guru HR Nagendra. has made the following recommendations to University Grants Commission (UGC) :

• Committee called for enrolling experts from yoga institutes, such as Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth, into various universities. Guest lecturers should be appointed under the stipulated salary according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms
• It also urged to create a separate faculty under the name of 'yogic art and science' instead of listing yoga under disciplines such as education, sports and philosophy
• The committee suggested that six courses at various levels, such as degree, diploma, certificate, post graduate degree/diploma, and research have to be launched at the central universities.

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As per the reports, the committee has also submitted the syllabus for the certificate and diploma courses, designed by Mishra and the syllabus for Master Degree, prepared by Patanjali Yogpeeth.

"Since setting up a full-fledged faculty will take time, the committee has suggested the names of several yoga experts who can teach at the universities in the beginning," added Mishra. A sub-committee will soon be formed to write texts on yoga, which will be UGC-published and passed on to central universities.

"There are a number of yoga paramparas (traditions) that are followed across the country. Our task was to put in place a syllabus that will be accepted by all universities and bring in greater uniformity in this regard. We recommend that it be taught at all universities," said committee member Pundit Radheshyam Mishra, who is also the director of the Ujjain Yoga Life Society International.

NET exempted for candidates registered for M.Phil/Ph.D prior July 2009