Chinese to be introduced in CBSE, says Kapil Sibal

BEIJING: Indian school students will soon begin learning Chinese in large numbers as it will soon be introduced in the CBSE curriculum, Human Resources Minister, Kapil Sibal said Wednesday after discussing with China's Education Minister Yuan Guiren the modalities of training Indian teachers for the task.

" China is our powerful neighbour and emerging as a biggest consumer of global resources. We cannot wish it away," Sibal told reporters here. "The best way to introduce China in India is to introduce its language at primary level so that our kids develop interest and knowledge about China", he said.

He told Yuan it was necessary for the Indian government to collaborate with China to formulate proper standards of teaching and examination.

Sibal said there was nothing his ministry could do about recognizing Chinese medical degrees, which is a demand from thousands of Indian students studying in medical colleges in China.

It is an issue for Medical Council of India, which has not extended the recognition to Chinese colleges. The situation is similar with Russian Medical degrees, he said.

Sibal said learning Chinese at primary level is better than learning at tertiary level which is more of academic interest, he said. The collaboration plans involve training 200 Indian teachers initially. The CBSE chairman has also agreed to introducing Chinese in the curriculum as soon as some teachers are available.

Sibal offered a student exchange program to his Chinese counterpart so that governments of the two countries support scholars from both sides.