Author: shrinivasa varakhedi

Current Status of Sanskrit Education
Sanskrit is being taught from 1^st Std. to 12^th Std. as one of the optional languages in various states at various levels for various numbers of marks. If Kerala offers Sanskrit as one of the languages from first standard, about 14,000 schools affiliated to Vidya Bharati Akhila Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan teach Sanskrit from 2^nd Std. Uttarakhand offers from 3^rd Std. Most of the State Secondary Education Boards offer Sanskrit as part of the Three Language Formula from 6^th to 10^th and as second optional language in 11^th and 12^th. Some states offer it as a composite course along with the mother tongue as well. It is estimated that altogether about five crore students study Sanskrit at school level. 
There are about 5000 traditional Sanskrit Pathashalas at school level and about 1000 Veda Pathashalas in the country. Eight States have Sanskrit Secondary Education Board or Directorate of Sanskrit Education and the rest of the states don’t have any. There is no Board for Veda Pathashalas. About three lakh students study Sanskrit in this sector.
About 120 general Universities offer Sanskrit at UG and PG level. There are 15 Sanskrit Universities. Though there are about 1000 traditional Sanskrit colleges affiliated to some of the above mentioned Sanskrit Universities, many of the Sanskrit Universities are not empowered to affiliate colleges and many of the states have no defined Authority to affiliate traditional Sanskrit colleges. About ten lakh students study Sanskrit in this sector.
There are 10 Sanskrit Academies, 16 Oriental Research Institutes, about 60 periodicals and magazines in Sanskrit and about a hundred NGOs working for the popularization of Sanskrit.
Though most of the states offer Sanskrit at 11^th and 12^th for Arts stream students, a very few states offer Sanskrit for Science and Commerce stream students, even if Sanskrit is there in the scheme of studies, it is only in the papers, teachers are not provided. The same trend continues at UG and PG levels and therefore it is also one of the reasons for the present disconnect between Sanskrit and Science & Technology.
Though most of the State Boards have implemented Three Language Formula till 10 Std. and two languages at 11 and 12th, three National Boards, CBSE, ICSE and NIOS have Three Language Formula up to 8^thonly, two languages at 9^th and 10^th, one language at 11^th and 12^th. It is an irony that institutions under Govt. of India don’t implement its own policy. Since CBSE, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya are perceived to be the trend setters, now many State Boards have also started following CBSE, KVS and NV policy (NV has no Sanskrit at all) due to which only English and regional language are being studied at the cost of Sanskrit and Hindi, at times even at the cost of mother tongue. Not studying Sanskrit at higher secondary level impacts the number of students at UG and PG level.
It is observed that when new subjects like computer, environment science, agriculture, skills etc are introduced at Secondary level in various states, usually those subjects are offered as an option to Sanskrit and not to any other subject, and thus Sanskrit becoming a scapegoat.
It is a fact that during the British period salary of Sanskrit teachers was half the salary of the salary of the teachers of other subjects due to which Sanskrit was looked down upon for long. Even today, in most of the states, Sanskrit teachers who teach at Secondary and Higher Secondary level Vidyalayas are given Primary level teachers’ salary, teachers who teach at UG and PG level Sanskrit Mahavidyalayas are given the salary of Secondary grade teachers’. Hence these Vidyalayas and Mahavidyalayas do not attract the talented teachers and students.
Until British started ruling India, secular education was imparted through Sanskrit language and Sanskrit texts and the purpose of education was knowledge and character building (सा विद्या या विमुक्तये - saa vidyaa yaa vimuktaye). When the British introduced English language and English education system for the purpose of administration, job opportunity became the prime criteria (ironically it became सा विद्या या नियुक्तये - saa vidyaa yaa niyuktaye) and the sidelining and decline of Sanskrit language and Sanskrit education became very severe and rapid. With the continuation of same policies in Independent India also, today Sanskrit graduates have the limited option of jobs as teachers. There again in most of the cases, Sanskrit teaching posts are rarely filled up once the teacher retires. Thus lesser teachers result in lesser number of students which further impacts the job opportunities and the vicious cycle continues. Therefore the need of the hour is to create jobs for Sanskrit graduates. 
School Education supplies students to Higher Education and Traditional Education. School Education provides employment for the products of the other two sectors. But the school education is the most neglected realm of Sanskrit Education. 
From the time British introduced English education system in India till date; the primary objective of Sanskrit learning was and has been “to understand Sanskrit literature and to translate it into English and other Indian languages”. Accordingly, the age old European method of language teaching, namely ‘Grammar Translation Method’ was employed in teaching of Sanskrit language. Though the whole world has discarded that method, it is being employed for Sanskrit teaching alone. As a result 1) thousands of Sanskrit books are translated which certainly helped in increasing awareness and importance of Sanskrit but, 2) people read translations, not Sanskrit 3) literature of other languages flourished, but not Sanskrit 4) Rote learning, memorizing of word declensions and the learning language through rules ended up in creating an atmosphere that Sanskrit is very difficult to learn, and as a result, 5) most of the Sanskrit teachers in the country today have studied ABOUT Sanskrit and not THE Sanskrit.
There would be about five lakh Sanskrit teachers in school education, higher education and traditional education. Since most of them are the products of the “Grammar Translation Method”, while they can understand Sanskrit, most of them cannot communicate in Sanskrit, they can translate from Sanskrit to other languages but not vice versa. There are Sanskrit classes, but there is no use of Sanskrit as a ‘language’, there are Sanskrit departments, but there is no communication in Sanskrit as a ‘language’, there are Sanskrit Vidyalayas and Mahavidyalayas, but there is no environment of Sanskrit as a ‘language’, there are Sanskrit Universities without the vibration of Sanskrit as a ‘language’. It is a different matter that due to the efforts of many NGOS and highly devoted Sanskrit teachers and Professors, there is a new trend of speaking Sanskrit in daily life, in classrooms and workplaces.
Learning Sanskrit is not like learning a new language for a student who knows any Indian language because sixty to seventy per cent of words used in most of the Indian languages are from Sanskrit. About twenty per cent of these are either original Sanskrit words or derived from Sanskrit (‘tatsama’ or ‘tadbhava’ words). The underlying structures of the sentences of most of the Indian languages closely resemble those of Sanskrit. The semantic and stylistic features of most of the Indian languages very closely resemble those of Sanskrit. Learners have already had some amount of casual exposure to Sanskrit through various occasions in families and the community.
Every foreign language is taught through the target language. Every Indian language is taught through that language. Answer papers from Nursery to PG courses of any language are written in the respective language only, never in any other language. The only exception is Sanskrit which is one of the root causes of the decline of Sanskrit.
There is a great disconnect and wide gap between Sanskrit education and main stream education. Hence there is a great difficulty in promoting interdisciplinary studies in Sanskrit institutions.
Keeping all the above factors in mind, the committee is of the firm view that it 1) will address the issues broadly at macro level and leave the micro issues to be addressed by the implementing authorities 2) will mainly focus on the issues of a) making Sanskrit teaching more attractive, relevant and rejuvenating b) Sanskrit studies blossoming with modern knowledge texts & contemporary literature and thus widening its scopes as a vibrant living language c) opening new horizons of research, innovation and creation for Sanskrit students and d) broadening the avenues for of both employment and employability of Sanskrit graduates.
Vision
Sanskrit coexisted with and complemented the regional languages from time immemorial, and it was a major uniting force of India. This has to be strengthened further.
Sanskrit literature was a great contributor to the all-inclusive character of India and there need to reinforce that aspect by popularizing Sanskrit.
Sanskrit can be best promoted not by making it compulsory which is an anathema and counter- productive but by making it one of the optional languages on par with 8^th Schedule languages at all levels. Today’s students are intelligent in deciding what language to choose.
Sanskrit was the language of Science, Technology, Medicine, Mathematics, Law, Economics, etc. Sanskrit was a ‘laboratory’ though unfortunately it has become a ‘temple’ now. The need of the hour is to probe and investigate Sanskrit, not worship it, not bring emotion to Sanskrit but rational thought process. As Maharshi Aurobindo had said, Vedas are an issue of contemplation, the secular Sanskrit literature need to be explored, researched and experimented. It has to be evaluated critically. There is need for a bridging of both ancient and modern, and a synthesizing of all the great thoughts of both east and west. 	
	पुराणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं न चापि काव्यं नवमित्यवद्यम् ।
सन्तः परीक्ष्यान्यतरद् भजन्ते मूढः परप्रत्ययनेयबुद्धिः ॥
	Puraanamityeva na saadhu sarvam, na caapi kaavyam navamityavadyam I
	Santah parikshyaanyataradbhajante, mudhah parapratyayaneyabuddhih II
-Maalavikaagnimitram, 1-2
(Everything is not great just because it is ancient. Nothing is bad just because it is modern. Intelligent people take things after properly examining it. Idiot simply believes what others say)
Mahatma Gandhi, in his numerous letters to his sons, had emphasized the need to learn Samskit. Without the knowledge of Sanskrit, in his opinion, education of an Indian would be incomplete. Swami Vivekananda in his letters addressed to various dignitaries and his Shishyas categorically reiterated the need of Sanskrit and its usefulness. Every effort should be made to make Vivekananda’s and Gandhi’s vision a reality.
Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar along with Mr. Naziruddin Ahmed etc. was a signatory to the draft amendment motion to declare Sanskrit as official language of India. When it was moved in the Constituent Assembly, Dr Ambedkar and Pandit Lakshmikant Maitra demonstrated how Sanskrit can be spoken easily by actually conversing in Sanskrit. Now is the time to make every Sanskrit student of India speak Sanskrit.
Change in Sanskrit teaching methods has to be brought in gradually. Since teacher training and their preparedness is crucial for ‘Teaching Sanskrit through Sanskrit’, Trainers’ Training, Teacher Training and Material Production on the lines of new methods and approaches to language teaching may be done in a massive scale in the next three to four years along with some pilot projects in some selected schools in every state as first phase. Following that, the new method and the new text books could be introduced in all the schools year by year in the following six to seven years as second phase.
In order to implement the recommendations of this committee, all the Sanskrit Institutions and various Departments may have to reprioritize their academic and other activities for the coming ten years. There has to be a continuous monitoring system of the progress made in this regard preferably once in six months.
In ten years from now, it is desired that 1) every Sanskrit student would be conversant and fluent in Simple Standard Sanskrit and answers would be written in Sanskrit 2) the integration of modern subjects  like Science, Social Science, Economics, Mathematics, etc. with Sanskrit and vice versa would be complete 3) the research in Sanskrit would usher in a new era 4) a corpus of knowledge texts in all branches of knowledge either translated to Sanskrit or written in Sanskrit would be available 5) Sanskrit would find its rightful place in spheres other than Education as well.