While Karnataka has become the first Indian state to roll out the National Education Policy 2020 since it was announced last year, a lot of students and parents are curious to know the importance given to the Sanskrit language under the NEP 2020.
Here are a few salient points
Under Section 4.12 and 4.13 of the NEP document,
- All states will promote the 3-language policy.
- Mother Tongue and English will form the first 2 languages.
- Choice of 3rd language is left to the states.
This will probably result in the following scenarios
What this will mean is in the Hindi belt of North India, English and Hindi will predominantly get chosen as the first two languages. Sanskrit will get the 3rd option.
In South India and non-Hindi speaking states, the 3rd language choice will predominantly become Sanskrit as it becomes more acceptable.
In addition to this, Section 4.17 of NEP states that
- Sanskrit, while also an important modern language mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, possesses a classical literature that is greater in volume than that of Latin and Greek put together, containing vast treasures of mathematics, philosophy, grammar, music, politics, medicine, architecture, metallurgy, drama, poetry, storytelling, and more (known as ‘Sanskrit Knowledge Systems’)
- Sanskrit will thus be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an
important, enriching option for students, including as an option in the three-language formula.
Section 22.15 of NEP
- Sanskrit will be mainstreamed with strong offerings in school – including as one of the language options in the three-language formula – as well as in higher education.
- Sanskrit Universities too will move towards becoming large multidisciplinary institutions of higher learning.
- Sanskrit teachers in large numbers will be professionalized across the country in mission mode through the offering of 4-year integrated multidisciplinary B.Ed. Dual degrees in education and Sanskrit.
National Education Policy 2020 Document
