By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) wants affiliated schools to celebrate ‘Sanskrit Week’ in an “endeavor to promote Sanskrit.”
In a letter written to all heads of schools affiliated to CBSE (dated June 30, 2014), Dr. Sadhana Parashar, Director (Academics, Research, Training and Innovation) at CBSE, writes, “The Central Board of Secondary Education is committed towards promoting the teaching and learning of Sanskrit – the mother of all languages. Sanskrit and Indian culture are intertwined as most of the indigenous knowledge is available in this language. ”
The carefully worded letter says that schools affiliated to CBSE “may celebrate” Sanskrit Week in an “experiential manner by conducting activities connected to the real world.”
The objective of celebrating Sanskrit Week may be to provide an opportunity to schools, teachers and students to come out, share their knowledge of Sanskrit and learn it from each other, it points out.
Immediately after the change at helm, the new HRD Minister Smirit Irani in the Narendra Modi led NDA Government had made their intentions very clear towards introducing the Hindu perspective in the education system. According to media reports, Irani had asked HRD officials to develop educational material that encapsulates the contribution of ancient Indians in different fields like science, mathematics, social sciences, philosophy, grammar and language. This material could be introduced as chapters in the school curriculum, the report had suggested.
The CBSE Director of Academics, Research, Training and Innovation echoed the changed dispensation as she said, “The celebration of this week would provide a medium for popularizing Sanskrit and stimulating interest in it by increasing awareness about the close relationship between Sanskrit and other languages and cultural heritage of India.”
The Sanskrit Week in schools may encourage linguistic creativity among students and provide an opportunity to benefit from the systematic structure of Sanskrit language that may be transferred in giving insights into all language learning, it added.
Sanskrit Week will be celebrated and conducted during August 7, 2014 till August 13, 2014. The schools affiliated to CBSE have been asked to commence the conduct of the Sanskrit related activities in July, 2014. Next, they may send their entries to CBSE for the selection at national level latest by July 20, 2014.
CBSE has detailed the kinds of programmes that can be organized during the Sanskrit Week that includes Laghubhashnam (Short Speech), Developing Apps and Games for Sanskrit Learning, Kavita Rachana, Essay Competition on themes related to Sanskrit, Sanskrit Shloka Antyakshar, Organization of Yuva Sansad on Sanskrit Promotion, etc. It has further suggested Screening of a Sanskrit film and Interaction of Children with eminent personalities/scholars Sanskrit literature.
CBSE also wants teachers also to get engage in the Sanskrit Week. It has directed teachers to “establishing links of Sanskrit with Modern Indian and International languages” and wants seminars to be organized on practical applications of simple Sanskrit.
“Teachers may be asked to carry out action research on establishing links/genesis of any of the above mentioned languages (in 8th Schedule or other International languages) with Sanskrit. The schools may send details of their research with the findings to the Board for the national level event,” it says.
According to the website of CBSE, there are a total of 15529 schools affiliated with CBSE spread across the country and some of them are abroad as well.