The government has decided to stop teaching German as third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas on the grounds that it was being offered as an alternative to Sanskrit in violation of the national education policy and national curriculum.
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani has also ordered a probe into the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Germany’s cultural institution Goethe-Institut Max Muller Bhawan to offer German as third language in its schools in 2011.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the KVS’ board of governors (BoG) on October 27. As a result, as many as 64,000 students of Class VI to VIII at 500 Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country will now have to switch from German to any of the modern Indian languages. From 2015, the KVS will make Sanskrit as third language for these classes.
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