And guess where the Steiners are headed during the Christmas vacations? Not back home, or anywhere close. “My wife Eliese and I are planning a temple tour in South India,” says the ambassador. “It’s both a personal interest as well as a part of my job to engage culturally with India,” adds Steiner.
It’s however, another part of the ambassador’s role that’s not panning out quite as planned. Steiner, who was the driving force behind a seemingly popular ‘German in 1,000 schools’ programme, finds himself bang in the middle of a controversy.
The human resource development (HRD) ministry has decided to discontinue teaching German in the 400 government-owned Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) as a third language; Sanskrit will now replace German. ‘German in 1,000 schools’ is a programme run by the German government, the Max Mueller Bhavan and the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.
Giving German the proverbial short shrift has come as a bolt from the blue. In an interview to ET Magazine (Read interview), eminent jurist Fali Nariman said: “The recent impasse of teaching of German as a third language in the Kendriya Vidyalayas put the country in a bad light — so much so that it had to be taken up in the G20 summit; and clarifications had to be issued.”
For his part, Steiner is hopeful that the students of KV will not be deprived of the opportunity to study German completely. Since September 2012, when the programme was launched, 78,500 KV students have enrolled for German language classes.
Opens Floodgates
“I am confident that a pragmatic solution will be found with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi having discussed the issue with our chancellor Angela Merkel last weekend. He stressed that he supports the learning of foreign languages but in a way that it respects Indian law.”
According to media reports, HRD minister Smriti Irani has clarified that KV students can continue to learn German as an “additional subject” as part of the hobby class.
The move to pitchfork Sanskrit as the third language at the KVs seems, however, to have opened the floodgates. Sanskrit Bharati, an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh outfit, now wants Sanskrit to be taught till Class XII at the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliated schools.
Students and parents are predictably a worried lot. A parent, whose daughter is a student at Delhi’s Sanskriti School, who didn’t want to be named, points out that teaching of foreign languages at schools helps children later when they work, travel or study overseas.
“Before the third language was introduced in Class V, under the CBSE curriculum, parents and students were given counselling by the school authorities so that they could make an informed choice,” she says. Her daughter, now a student of Class IX, has opted to study French, though she could have dropped it at the Class VIII stage.