The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to consider introducing Sanskrit as the third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) from the next academic year and not thrust it on the students this year itself. The Court has also suggested that instead of replacing German with Sanskrit, the students could be given a choice of Sanskrit as an optional language this academic year. The government’s decision is awaited. It has been argued that Sanskrit is an ancient language and was taught at schools not long ago. Sanskrit is part of the rich national heritage. Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has decided to discontinue German and bring in Sanskrit or any other Indian language as a third language in the Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country. 70,000 students in 500 schools would be affected by the decision taken on October 27.
The government seems to have lost sight of the fact that a period of two months is not enough to unlearn the German language which the students have been studying since 2011 and replace it with Sanskrit. Irani has also made some other surprising decisions. She has said that Catholic schools in India should have worship of Saraswati in the institutions. It runs counter to the secular approach to education of the Narendra Modi government. Even government schools in a vernacular medium are supposed to have a secular spirit and Saraswati Bandana is not compulsory at these schools. Catholic schools do not make catechism a compulsory part of their course. There seems to be discrimination against these schools from another angle. No such imposition is made at the madrasas for Muslims. The government must be aware that Christians, like Muslims, are a minority community which needs protection.