NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday appointed senior IAS officer Naresh Gangwar as the new education secretary, replacing Vineet Joshi, amid continuing protests over the alleged NEET paper leak.Gangwar, a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, was serving as secretary in the department of animal husbandry and aairying under the ministry of disheries, animal husbandry and dairying. He has now been appointed secretary in the department of school education and literacy as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle.An engineer by training, Gangwar holds a BTech in Electronics and Communication from the University of Roorkee, an MTech in Communication from IIT Delhi, and an MA in Economics from the University of Rajasthan. During his career, he has served in several senior positions in the Rajasthan government and the Centre, including principal secretary in Rajasthan and joint secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, where he handled pollution control and hazardous substances management.The government order did not specify any reason for the change. The reshuffle comes amid continuing protests by the CJP and students over the alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, with demonstrators demanding accountability and reforms in the examination system.