'Chinese' dropped from National Education Policy 2020's foreign languages list?

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29 does not mention Chinese among the list of foreign languages to be offered to secondary level students.

The Chinese language was mentioned in the 2019 draft version of the policy. However, the approved NEP 2020 cites only Korean, Japanese, Thai, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian, along with Indian languages and English.

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The policy suggests that learning foreign languages shall help "students to learn about the cultures of the world and to enrich their global knowledge and mobility according to their own interests and aspirations."

Founder and Chief faculty at Yellow River Chinese Academy, Shraddha Prabhu Kumar, pointed out that students at the secondary level should be given an option to learn the Chinese language. "The maximum number of people in the world speak Chinese. Giving students the option to choose Chinese would be the most sensible thing to do," she said.

Adding that China is one of the top players in the global economy, she said, "Chinese is an ancient language and it should have nothing to do with two countries not seeing eye to eye."

'Boycott China' calls in India have been louder after Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a bitter standoff in several areas along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh since May 5. The situation deteriorated post the Galwan Valley clashes in which 20 Indian Army personnel and an unconfirmed number of Chinese soldiers died. Following that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government also banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok and WeChat.

Amid the existing India-China tensions, the unmentioned Chinese language in the NEP comes as a crucial move.

The NEP 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century and replaces the 34-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986.

(With agency inputs)