Parliamentary panel’s suggestions get President’s approval

Students of schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Kendriya Vidyalyas (KVs) may have to compulsorily study Hindi till Class X with recommendations of a parliamentary panel in this regard getting the President’s nod.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has also been instructed to form a policy in consultation with the State governments to make the language compulsory. “The HRD Ministry should make serious efforts to make Hindi language compulsory in curriculum. As a first step, Hindi should be made a compulsory subject up to Class X in all schools of CBSE and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan,” the presidential order said.

Form policy

“The Centre should form a policy in consultation with State governments,” it added. The CBSE, as on this February, has 18,546 schools in India and 210 schools in 25 foreign countries.

There are 1,117 KVs, 2,685 government/aided schools, 14,141 independent schools, 589 Jawahar Novodaya Vidyalayas and 14 Central Tibetan Schools, as per the board’s website. The recommendations were made in the ninth report of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language.

The CBSE had last year recommended a three-language formula — English and any two Indian languages — to be expanded to Classes IX and X. However, the HRD Ministry is yet to take a call on the suggestion.

Meanwhile, Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu in Guwahati, also urged the people to use Hindi in their day-to-day life along with the regional languages.