Mumbai
Maharashtra State Council for Educational Research & Training (SCERT) has moved a proposal to make English an optional “other foreign language” for the students of Junior College. Additionally, the proposal also may allow students to learn subjects from a mix of traditional streams of arts, science and commerce.
The SCERT has made a draft of the State Curriculum Framework (SCF) for School Education public on Wednesday and invited opinions from various stakeholders.
Although English language has been made non-compulsory, it continues to be a mandatory part for the earlier classes or those from Classes 3 to 10. The proposal will be applicable only on Classes 11 and 12, if approved.
Under the proposed framework, students will have to select at least one of the two languages native to India. The second can be from the “other foreign language” category or entirely ignore “other foreign language” for a native one
The list of native languages include Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Kannad, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sindhi, Bengali, Punjabi, Pali, Ardhamagadhi, Marashtri Prakrut and Avesta-Pahalvi.
There are a total of nine languages under the non-native or foreign category, namely, English, German, French, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Persian and Arabic.
In all, each student of Junior College will have eight subjects as part of their syllabus – two languages, four subjects of their choice and mandatory environmental as well as physical education. The four subjects of choice could be a mix of traditional commerce, arts and science streams and not necessarily from the traditional stream that a student opts for. This is in line with National Education Policy.
The draft has also proposes including ‘Indian Knowledge System’ such as yoga, astronomy, dancing, kathak, odissi, etc. as part of the formal education system.
