Envoys welcome inclusion of foreign languages in India's National Education Policy 2020

The foreign envoys of several countries, whose languages have been included in the National Education Policy 2020, have welcomed the development and said that this will increase the understanding of the country and also the bilateral cooperation.

The national education policy has announced that foreign languages-- Korean, Japanese, Thai, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian will be offered at the secondary level. The policy said this will allow "students to learn about the cultures of the world and to enrich their global knowledge and mobility according to their own interests and aspirations".

Thai envoy Chutintorn Sam Gongsakdi reacting to the development said, "Thai is taught in places like Australia & Viet Nam, but in India, it’s an additional honour. There are common Pali and Sanskrit roots in our languages, so I hope Indians will not find Thai too difficult."

Russian envoy Nikolay Kudashev said, "Happy to see the Russian language listed in the New Education Policy among the electives that students can take up to learn about cultures of the world and enrich global knowledge. It will further strengthen bilateral and people-to-people ties."

South Korea's envoy to India, Shin Bongkil said, "I think Indian government`s decision about adding Korean as a foreign language for secondary level can be considered as one of symbolic measure to focus on the importance of India-Korea relations."

The Korean Culture Centre in India is preparing to open a Korean Language Teacher Training Course with 23 Korean language teacher candidate. These teachers are selected for a 15-week intensive course which will run from August 17 to December 24. No Mandarin was included in the new education policy.