The German embassy has contacted the Ministry of Education to see if there are any possibilities to expand German classes in all Kendriya Vidyalayas, citing the fact that the number of pupils learning the language in KVs has decreased significantly, resulting in the layoff of over 270 language teachers. The development comes two years after the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan decided to teach German only outside of school hours.
"At KV schools, just 18,500 children are permitted to continue their German language learning sessions. As a result of this situation, 271 German teachers have already been laid off. In an e-mail response, an embassy official said, "The embassy is in contact with the government to explore various ways and means to re-increase German courses in all KV schools."
"The German embassy is working closely with KVs and the education ministry to find a constructive solution in accordance with the New Education Policy, NEP 2020, and CBSE guidelines that benefits students in achieving their goals and fulfilling their insatiable desire to learn German, which is Europe's most widely spoken language after English," the spokesperson added.
While the education ministry has yet to respond, the KVs have stated that any additional language must be studied by at least 15 children in a school. "Offering a foreign language as a third language breaches the three-language requirement," a KV official explained, "but any additional language given during school hours requires a minimum of 15 students."
In 2014, the then-Human Resource Development Ministry decided to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in the KVs, claiming that the current structure was incompatible with the three-language formula and "violated" national education policy. German was restored as a hobby topic or supplementary language by the KVs in 2015.