New Delhi: Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to conduct the national teachers’ test – CTET – in all languages as was done earlier after being slammed for “imposition” of Hindi and Sanskrit.

The CBSE had dropped 17 languages from the exam and limited the options for candidates to just English, Hindi and Sanskrit, a move which educationists believed would have caused a severe disadvantage to aspirants from southern states.

The test is a must for appointment of teachers in Kendriya Vidyalayas as well as private institutions affiliated to the CBSE. After the CBSE notified that it had dropped 17 regional languages from the test, political parties from Tamil Nadu criticised the move.

The Information Bulletin on the CTET website said, “A candidate may choose any one language as Language I and other as Language II from the available language options and will be required to specify the same in the Confirmation Page. Language options would be English, Hindi and Sanskrit only. Candidate may choose only two languages from English, Hindi and Sanskrit only.”

This meant that while teachers earlier could choose two languages out of 20, now they had to choose from three.

Responding to the development, DMK parliamentarian MP MK Kanimozhi tweeted, “The decision to drop Tamil & 16 other regional languages from Central Teacher Eligibility Test is highly condemnable and strikes at the root of federalism. Students of CBSE whose mother tongue is Tamil will be put to a great disadvantage without teachers.”

She further said that if students are forced to study Hindi and Sanskrit instead of their mother tongue, it will lead to another language struggle throughout the country. “This is another of BJP’s efforts to make a Hindi-Hindu Hindustan,” she said.

PMK founder S Ramadoss also said that the Centre had removed Tamil from the list only to impose Hindi and Sanskrit on the state.

After the criticism, the HRD minister directed CBSE to go back to the earlier format.

He said in one of his tweets, “CTET examination will be conducted in all Indian languages as was being conducted earlier. I have already directed @cbseindia29 to conduct examination in all the 20 languages as was being done earlier.”

He clarified that CTET examination will be held in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Garo, Gujarati, Kanada, Khasi, Malyalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Mizo, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan and Urdu.

The 11th edition of CTET will be held on September 16. It will be conducted in 92 cities all over the country.