Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The age-old Sanskrit is the new-in cool, and scoring thing for Madhya Pradesh (MP) students studying in state board and CBSE (central board of secondary education) affiliated schools, as most students excel in the subject and earn a distinction. Furthermore, the education boards are now offering more options and even incentives to study Sanskrit!
Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) students will be rewarded with Rs 8,000 to students of Classes 1st to 5th and Rs 10,000 to students of Classes 6th to 12th for becoming proficient in performing religious rites. Furthermore, going back to roots and ensuring compliance with New Education Policy 2020 (NEP), MP school education will include life story of Lord Parshuram.
Discussing the same, district education officer (DEO) Manglesh Vyas said, “Following the policy, in the coming years, Sanskrit will be ‘mainstreamed’ with strong offerings in schooling – including it as one of the language options in the three-language formula and in high school studies in MP.” He added that the system will be established in such a way that it will enable the extensive use of technology to aid in language translation and interpretation efforts in the coming years.
Indore Sahodaya Complex of CBSE Schools chairperson Isabel Swamy said, “Students have scored exceptionally well in Sanskrit, with some getting 100% marks in Indore.” She added that this brings pride to Indore for having such diligent students.
She added that Sanskrit has always been considered a scoring subject, but it is still tough to get 100%.
"Students having spent time at home have improved their knowledge of basic education in terms of language,” Manoj Bajpai, an educationist, added. He explained that it’s likely that some students have parents, who are religiously inclined and hence, Sanskrit shlokas became more closer part of their life from pandemic time.
CBSE to offer Sanskrit in two levels for Class 10 board exams
In pursuance of the recommendation of National Education Policy 2020 regarding availability of all subjects and corresponding assessments at two levels as per the needs and interest of students, CBSE is offering Communicative English and Sanskrit at two levels from the academic year in Class X in the year 2023-24.
“The Board will offer communicative based curricula which CBSE used to offer in these languages till the year 2018 in these languages,” CBSE director (Academics) Joseph Emmanuel said.
Until now, the board was offering Mathematics (basic and standard) and Hindi (A and B) at two levels. The Union education ministry announced that the CBSE will start offering English and Sanskrit at two-levels as well.