New Delhi: The draft version of the National Education Policy, when it was released in English last year, had the Chinese language on the list of foreign languages offered as electives for secondary school students, however, it looks like the language has been dropped from the NEP that was recently approved.
Along with the Chinese, the draft also listed other languages like French, German, Spanish and Japanese. While the final version of the NEP dropped Chinese from the list of foreign languages, it added others like Korean, Russian, Portuguese, and Thai.
At this time, it remains unclear as to whether the exclusion of Chinese from the list of examples of foreign languages means that the language will not be available at the school-level.
This development comes amid increasing tensions between India and China that was sparked after 20 Indian soldiers were killed by Chinese troops in Galwan Valley. While the countries have been in talks over the issues, and there was a mutual disengagement in July with both sides withdrawing forces by two kilometres each, the Indian government, in June, banned 59 Chinese apps, including the wildly popular TikTok. This week, 47 more Chinese apps were banned by the Indian government for allegedly operating as clones of the previously banned apps.
The apps were blocked “in view of information available (that) they are engaged in activities… prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India…” the government said.
