Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Despite the cultural diversity encompassing languages like Marathi, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Gujarati, there is a disinterest among MP Board students in exploring languages beyond the mainstream offerings. Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) offers a diverse range of language subjects for high school and higher secondary students, totaling 13 options. But students only enrolled themselves in four languages; these languages include Marathi, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Gujarati.
The fervor for learning Gujarati seems absent among students of the MPBSE as they prefer Marathi, Punjabi as second language in boards. A total of 9,92,101 students participated in the class 10th exam, out of which a mere 1,023 students opted for Marathi, followed by 76 students choosing Punjabi, 18 students selecting Gujarati, and a minimal 2 students electing Sindhi as their language subject.
In the higher secondary, a total of 748,238 students undertook the examination, but only 70 students opted for Marathi as an additional language; no other language was chosen by the students. Bhupesh Gupta, chief system officer of the MP Board, said that students were allowed to select language subjects beyond Hindi, English, Sanskrit, and Urdu from the proposed syllabus. Gupta said students could only opt for these additional language subjects if their school had qualified teachers for the chosen languages; if there is no teacher, students can’t opt for these subjects.
languages offered by the MP Board from 9th to 12th The MP Board offers 13 languages, including Hindi, English, Sanskrit, and Urdu. The other proposed languages are Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, and Malyalam.
