Prepare status report of Sanskrit textbooks, says panel

A panel formed for suggesting a roadmap for Sanskrit promotion has recommended that NCERT may prepare a status report of its Sanskrit textbooks for all the classes, the Lok Sabha was told today.
The HRD ministry said the recommendations have been sent to NCERT for appropriate action.
According to a statement issued here, the panel headed by former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami has recommended that,"NCERT may prepare a status report of the textbooks of all the classes of all the States on the following issues: When were the existing textbooks of Sanskrit prepared? How many times these textbooks were revised and when they were last revised? What are the innovative designs included during the last revision?"

The panel also suggested that NCERT may collect data of the number of sanctioned posts of Sanskrit teachers in every state, number of posts filled and the number of vacant posts in all the government and govt-aided schools and private schools.
NCERT and SCERTs may ensure that free tutorials for all Sanskrit textbooks are available online, the panel has said.
"The report of the Committee has been sent to NCERT for appropriate action," HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The Committee also observed that making available free tutorials for Sanskrit textbooks online would help the students to understand the language in a constructive and encouraging environment, according to the ministry statement.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry had last year constituted the committee headed by Gopalaswami, currently the Chancellor of Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, to assess and review the present schemes for development of Sanskrit to revive interest in the ancient language.
The committee is also tasked with charting out an action plan to develop the language in the next 10 years.