BENGALURU: Students at government schools across the country will get introduced to 22 Indian languages in a span of one month, under a new project initiated by the Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD).
The Bhasha Sangam programme, under the 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat' project of the MHRD, will be followed in schools from November 20 to December 21, 2018, during which schoolchildren will be introduced to all 22 India languages of Schedule VIII of the Constitution.
The ministry has released a schedule marking dates for each language, and students have already been introduced to Assamese and Bengali on November 20 and 22, respectively. Next on the schedule is Bodo on November 26, and Dogri on November 27. Kannada is scheduled for introduction on November 30.
During the Bhasha Sangam programme, the school authorities have to introduce students to five sentences of the language fixed for that particular day/date by reading out the sentences in the morning assembly and asking the students to repeat them.
"We need to read out five simple short commonly-used sentences, for eg, what is your name, hello, how are you, etc. In case there are any students who know that particular language we can make them read out the sentences in the morning assembly," said a teacher from a government school in the city.
According to the notification issued by MHRD, this programme aims to enhance linguistic tolerance and respect, and promote national integration.
A digital book with audio recordings of the sentences is available on the websites http://epathshala.gov.in/ and the MHRD website http://mhrd.gov.in/bhashasangam so that students can hear the correct pronunciations.