Sanskrit week: CBSE suggests schools to organise shloka events

New Delhi, Aug 25: Reciting and composing Sanskrit shlokas and poems are some of the suggestions made by CBSE to its affiliated schools for the 'Sanskrit Week' celebration between August 26 and September 1, the second such event after the NDA government came to power.

As part of the activities during the week, it has said that students from senior secondary classes may be motivated to carry out action research on establishing links between Sanskrit and modern Indian languages.

Organising 'Yuva Sansad' on Indian languages has also been planned to strengthen the oratory acumen of students besides screening of a Sanskrit film.

They would learn to seek clarifications to various questions related to learning of Indian languages and suggest possible solutions, a communication by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to the affiliated schools said.

"The objective of celebrating Sanskrit Week may be to provide voluntary opportunity to students to share their knowledge of Sanskrit and learn it from each other.

"The celebration of this week would increase awareness about the close relationship among Sanskrit and various other languages and cultural heritage of India. It may also stimulate linguistic creativity among students," the communication said.

The event had triggered a fair degree of controversy when it was announced last year, with a petition being filed in Madras High Court and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa opposing the week-long celebration in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Critics had also hit out at the government for "saffronising" education.

The communication has, however, said the schools "may" organise the Sanskrit week. The CBSE had also organised an expression series on luminaries S R Ranganathan, Vikram Ambalal Sabhai and Sri Aurobindo earlier this month inviting students to submit their entries as essay, poem or drawing.

PTI