The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS), which runs 500 Central Schools across the country, has decided to offer German as a “foreign language” instead of third language.
Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, who heads the Board of Governors of KVS, also ordered the institution not to renew its 2011 Memorandum of Understanding with the German government’s Goethe Institut, which had provided the KVS with 700 German teachers.
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Ms. Irani said: “In 2011, the Kendriya Vidyalaya had signed an MoU which made German a ‘third language’ subject in schools. I ordered the investigation of this MoU on October 27 as it was in violation of India’s national education policy and the national education framework and thus we did not sign the MoU again.”
German would continue to be offered however, as a “foreign language.”
“We have a three-language policy and in a country with 22 scheduled languages, 125 constitutionally recognised languages and 1,600 dialects, we have decided on this policy after taking into account India’s diversity,” she said.
According to the three-language policy of 1968, Kendriya Vidyalayas offer the official language of the State as a third language, English and Hindi being the first and second languages.
In Hindi-speaking States, Sanskrit is offered as a third language. After the MoU of 2011, German was additionally offered as a third language.
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