CBSE to have NRI linkages

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 8. Joining the ongoing effort to establish linkages with the Indian diaspora and cash in on the growing interest overseas in all things Indian, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to launch courses in Indian languages and culture.

Announcing this at a press conference here today, the CBSE Chairman, Mr. Ashok Ganguly, said the courses were being introduced in response to the concern among non-resident Indians about the gradual distancing of their wards from their roots. And, to administer these two courses aimed at ``facilitating the world to know India'', an International Cell has been set up within CBSE with an allocation of Rs. 15 lakhs from the Board's own funds.

In the pipeline for a year now, a language course in Malayalam will be the first to see the light of day. ``If everything goes as per schedule, we will have a Centre of Indian Languages and Culture functional for the Gulf region in Dubai by August and offer Malayalam courses from then on,'' said the Advisor of the International Cell, Prof. H. S. Srivastava.

To begin with, such centres will be set up in affiliate schools of the Board. And in countries having a sizable Indian population but no CBSE affiliated schools, the Board plans to rope in NGOs working in similar fields to establish linkages.

Though designed with the Indian diaspora in mind, the courses are open to all irrespective of age or educational qualifications. The courses will be offered at three levels: ``Parichaya'' (Foundation course), ``Prabodh'' (Functional course) and ``Praveen'' (Proficiency course). While the duration of the first two levels are 20 weeks each, the last will be for 30 weeks.

The courses will cost 125 dollars, 150 dollars and 200 dollars respectively, and will cover course material, contact programme, and evaluation and certification. Though there will be mid-term and final evaluation, the courses have been designed to allow self-learning and the examinations will ``not be competitive, but certifying''.

The languages that CBSE proposes to teach through the International Cell are Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil and Gurmukhi. But for now, the emphasis is on preparing learning modules in Malayalam, Hindi and Gujarati as ``the demand is maximum for these languages''.

As for Indian culture, the aspects that will be covered are: Dances (folk and classical), art and architecture, music (vocal and instrumental), history and civilisation, literature, family and social structure, and health systems (Yoga and Ayurveda).

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