Envoys welcome inclusion of foreign languages in NEP, but Twitterati question removal of Mandarin

The envoys of Moscow, Seoul and Bangkok to New Delhi welcomed inclusion of Russian, Korean and Thai as the examples of foreign languages the new National Education Policy cited for the students can be taught at the secondary level.

The move to drop Mandarin Chinese from the list of the foreign languages suggested by the NEP, however, drew flak on social media.

Chinese was among the foreign languages in the draft NEP, which was put out last year, listed as examples of the ones the students could be offered at the secondary levels. But it was dropped when the NEP was finally approved by the government last week.

"In addition to high quality offerings in Indian languages and English, foreign languages, such as Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, French, German, Spanish, or Russian will also be widely offered at the secondary level, for students to learn about the cultures of the world and to increase their global knowledge and mobility according to their own interests and aspirations,” the NEP, which the Union Cabinet cleared last Wednesday, stated.

The NEP, with Mandarin Chinese dropped from the list of recommended foreign languages, was approved by the government at a time when India-China relations hit a new low due to the continuing military stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.

“While the NEP is laudable, omitting ‘Chinese’ from elective languages would be a blunder. India must create a cohort of Mandarin & (and) Cantonese linguists & (and) encourage in-depth study of Han culture / history & (and) psyche. We don’t need Sun Tzu to tell us about need to know the enemy,” tweeted former Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash.

Sun Tzu was a military strategist and in ancient China. He is believed to be the author of the “Art of War”, a book on military strategy written around 5th or 6th century BC.

Several other Twitter users too questioned the rationale of dropping Mandarin Chinese from the list of the foreign languages recommended for being offered to the students.

The government, however, said that list only referred to certain foreign languages as examples and it neither recommended or barred teaching or learning of any language.

The ambassadors of Russia, Thailand and South Korea, however, noted that the inclusion of Russian, Thai and Korean in the NEP’s list of foreign languages would contribute to strengthening India’s relations with their countries.

“Happy to see Russian language listed in the New Education Policy among the electives that students can take up to learn about cultures of the world and enrich global knowledge. It will further strengthen bilateral people-to-people ties,” Nikolay Kudashev, Moscow’s envoy to New Delhi, tweeted.

“Thai is taught in places like Australia & (and) Viet Nam, but in India, it’s an additional honour,” Bangkok’s envoy to New Delhi, Chutintorn Sam Gongsakdi, posted on Twitter.