Vice Prez pitches for teaching up to class 10 in mother tongue

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said the medium of teaching up to class X should be the mother tongue of the student and urged the government to take steps in this regard.

He said there is no problem if English is taught but the foundation should be in the mother tongue.

Naidu was addressing an event organised by the RSS-linked Sanskrit Bharati here.

"We should all make it a point to learn Sanskrit so that we maintain a living link with our rich past and truly understand what it means to be an Indian," he told the gathering.

The government and non-governmental organisations should join hands to preserve, promote and propagate Sanskrit language and literature, he said.

Sanskrit, Naidu said, has been a vital link between Indian languages in terms of vocabulary.

Most of the Indian languages have originated from Sanskrit and it has been India's unseen unifying force, he said, adding that "we cannot think of India without thinking of Sanskrit".

Naidu also said that Sanskrit has a treasure trove on issues such as water shortage, health and environment. "That is why research takes place on Sanskrit in several countries," he said.

Before the advent of foreign invasion in India, Sanskrit was the medium of education, he said, adding that universities such as Nalanda and Takshashila were teaching almost all the subjects, including economics (arthasasthram), astronomy (surya siddhatham), warfare (dhanur veda), and physics (bouthikam) in that language.