The controversy surrounding the observance of ‘Sanskrit Week’, beginning August 7, by CBSE schools, did not deter some city schools from marking the week anyway. The June 30 CBSE circular on Sanskrit Week ran into rough weather in Tamil Nadu, with many political parties condemning it. The circular states that all schools affiliated to CBSE “may celebrate Sanskrit week in an experiential manner by conducting activities connected to the real world.” It states that schools may commence related activities in July, send their entries to CBSE for selection at the national level, and organise activities between August 7 and 13 as part of Sanskrit Week.
A principal of a CBSE school in south Chennai said only students who have opted to study Sanskrit as the second or third language were involved in the activities. “Students have to be given activities as part of the formative and summative assessments. We are linking the two in some instances,” she said, adding that they place equal importance on Tamil and Hindi, with days set aside for each.
“Conducting languages-related activities is a regular feature at our school,” said a principal of a west Chennai CBSE school. Some schools, however, said they did not mark the week as they either had no students opting for Sanskrit or did not offer it.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to suitably modify the circular to give importance to the linguistic heritage of every state.
