KVs to relax norms in grading of third language students

Kendriya Vidyalayas have decided to provide certain relaxations to students from class VI to VIII such as postponing their formative assessments in the wake of the HRD Ministry's move to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language mid-session.

The ministry had earlier said that students could opt for any other modern Indian language for this session to help them reduce their burden.

In a communication, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has also made it clear that the third language will be taught for such students with the syllabus of the first-term of class VI and even for those children in class VII and VIII who had taken German as a third language.

"To further facilitate these children, the grades obtained by these students for the earlier term of learning German as a third language would be considered for finalising the compilation of results for their totals in the third language," it said.

The decision of the ministry to replace German with Sanskrit has affected close to 68,000 students between class VI to VIII.

German will, however, continue to be taught as an additional subject or as a hobby class.

The third and the fourth formative assessment scheduled to start shortly will now not be held for these students and their assessment and examination schedule will be intimated subsequently, the communication said.

Formative Assessment, introduced within the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Framework, is a tool used by the teacher to continuously monitor student progress.

The ministry had last week decided to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in the KVs, arguing that the existing arrangement was against the three-language formula and "violated" the national policy on education.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani had said that "an investigation" has already been launched into the signing of an MoU in 2011 enabling German being taught as the third language.

The KVs have also decided that survives of teachers recruited on contractual basis for teaching of German will be continued as per existing terms and conditions as it is being taught as an additional subject.