Chennai : Leaders of political parties in Tamil Nadu, including DMK president M Karunanidhi, have criticised the Union government’s attempts to promote Sanskrit in schools by mandating the three-language formula.
Express had reported that a high-level central committee has urged the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) schools to strictly implement the three-language formula till Class X so that more students would get an opportunity to study Sanskrit as an optional language.
Confirming this, Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, in a recent meeting, announced that Sanskrit would be made available as a third language in all the CBSE and ICSE schools across the country.
Reacting to this, Karunanidhi said the Modi government has been trying to impose Sanskrit indirectly since 2014 when it came to power.
Now, it has openly declared that Sanskrit would be a subject for students from Class VIII to XII in CBSE and ICSE schools, he said.
“Having discussions only at the ministerial-level regarding decisions like this of national importance involving non-Hindi speaking states is condemnable and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene and ensure that linguistic diversity is preserved”, he said in a statement.
Similarly, PMK leader, Anbumani Ramadoss said, “A third language should remain optional and it should be up to the children to learn a language like it is now.”
According to him MHRD has been continuously trying to impose Sanskrit through Sanskrit weeks celebrations, introducing the language in university syllabus and now by making a language spoken by only 14,000 people across India as an option. Students are going to suffer a lot, he added.
G K Vasan of the Tamil Manila Congress has also opposed this. In his view, MHRD has several other issues to be resolved immediately including improving basic infrastructure of colleges, prevent commercialisation of education and filling up the huge vacancies of teachers rather than imposing a language among school children. He demanded the Centre to retract the decision.
Source : The New Indian Express
