BANGALORE, INDIA, January 7, 2011: After English, Hindi and Kannada, Sanskrit is the most sought-after second language in India. Among the 400,000 odd students taking the pre-university exam every year the numbers rose from 13,630 in 2009 to 14,221 in 2010. However, the number of takers for regional languages is dropping. Usually, languages like Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu are taken by students on the borders of the state. Instead, it’s English that is in vogue.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) offers 31 languages. Even then, Sanskrit fares better than many foreign languages for three main reasons. Most of the students take up the course because of the high marks that can be scored and their overall percentage shoots up as the second language marks are high,’ said officials of the Pre-University Board. ‘There are also a few parents who ask their children to take up the course for the love of the language,’ said M. Srinivasan, president, Managements of Independent CBSE Schools Association, Karnataka.