German Removed as a Third Language Subject in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan Schools in Indi

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS) decided to remove German as a third regular language subject in their schools in favor of Sanskrit. German will be offered as a foreign language instead.

Friday’s order for the removal of the German language came from Smirti Irani, who is the Human Resources Development Minister as well as the head of the Board of Directors of KVS, which administers 500 Central Schools from a total of 1,092 schools they handle across India, with a combined student population of 1.1 million.

Memorandum of agreement with Geothe Institut

KVS had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) in 2011 with the Goethe Institut to have German included as a third language in their regular curriculum and the German government has sent 700 German teachers to the KVS. Ms. Irani said that she had ordered an investigation into the MoU last month as she found that it violated the national education policy and national education framework of India. She ordered that the new MoU that was up for renewal since September 2014 should not be signed again.

The Sanskrit teachers had earlier taken the issue to the High Court of Delhi, alleging that the introduction of German by the KVS as a third language replacing Sanskrit was a violation of the education policy of the country.

The Minister said they have a third-language policy that they instituted due to the country’s diversity. There are 125 languages that are constitutionally recognized in India, with 22 scheduled languages and 1,600 dialects. Based on their 1968 third-language policy, the KVS offered the State’s official language as a third language after English and Hindi and in the Hindi-speaking States, the third language offered was Sanskrit, which was replaced by German after the MoU of 2011.

Effect on students

The recent order by Ms. Irani will affect more than 70,000 students studying in the 500 KVS-administered schools across the country from grades six to eight, who will be switching from German to Sanskrit.

Germany’s position

German Chancellor Angela Merkel conveyed her government’s desire for India to work out a system so that students would be able to learn foreign languages to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Sunday. The two had their first meeting during the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia where she discussed the issue with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said that he also wanted young Indians to learn foreign languages and would find a solution. Michael Steiner, Germany’s ambassador to India had already brought up the issue with the government of India earlier, and said he hoped that they could come up with a practical solution.

News about the removal of the German language subject had caused panic among parents and general public confusion. Ms. Irani said her ministry would be providing counseling and support to affected students. German would continue to be offered not as a third language but as a separate foreign language in the hobby class.

Ms. Irani also added that the students would not be obliged to take up Sanskrit as a third language but would have the option to choose from any of the modern Indian languages.

Image credit: Smriti Irani during the BIG Television Awards taken by Filmi Tadka under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.