Puducherry: Kireet Joshi, an eminent educationist and former Education Advisor to the government of India passed away on Sunday after battling cancer. He was 83. Joshi breathed his last around 5 am at the Ashram Nursing Home where he had been undergoing treatment for the past few months.
“Saddened by demise of Shri Kireet Joshi. He will be remembered as a fine scholar & educationist, devoted to the principles of Sri Aurobindo,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted condoling Joshi’s death.
“As advisor to the Gujarat CM, Kireet Bhai played a key role in setting up of Children’s University & Institute of Teacher Education,” he said.
Joshi was a philosopher, and was the first Registrar of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (SAICE). In 1976, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, appointed Joshi as Education Advisor.
He also served as the Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research.
In 1983, he was appointed Special Secretary to the Government of India, and held this post until 1988. He was also the Vice-Chairman of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Hamburg, from 1987 to 1989.