Ancient languages like Pali, Sanskrit and Arabic get more takers by Board Students

Ancient languages like Pali, Sanskrit and Arabic have more takers in the Intermediate and High School examinations conducted by the UP Board. Moreover, the regional languages like Assamese, Malayalam, Oriya, Gujarati and Telugu are finding no takers.

The students this year in Class 12 showed a disinterest towards the regional languages. Out of the total of 29.19 lakh students, no student had applied for the Assamese and Oriya subjects. The only student who had registered for the Malayalam language failed to appear in the same. One student had appeared for the Gujarati language subject and passed in it. Two students had appeared for the Nepali and Kannada subjects and had cleared both.

Only four students had appeared for Telugu subject examination and three students appeared for the Tamil subject examination.

Around 140 students had registered for the language Pali. The pass percentage in the examination was 94.44 percent, 126 students had appeared for the examination and 119 students had cleared the examination. A total of 12.88 lakh students had applied for the Sanskrit language and out of which 11.61 lakh cleared the examination. In Arabic, the total number of students who had registered was 156 out of which 155 were declared successful.

The other language where students had showed interest was Persian. Around 85 students had given the examination out of which 79 students passed.

The same scenario was seen for the Class 10 examination. Out of a total of 30.55 lakh students only one student had appeared for the Malayalam subject. Similarly, out of the three students who had appeared for the Nepali examination only one could qualify, only two qualified for the Kannada subject, five in Bengali and three in Tamil. The only student who had appeared for the Oriya subject could not clear it.

"At a time when the students are selecting traditional language like Pali, Sanskrit or Arabic, it is not understandable as to why they are not opting to the regional language," said Amarnath Verma, the secretary of the UP Board.

Amarnath Verma said that the students learn regional languages such as Gujarati to pass competitive examinations conducted by the Public Service Commission of the State concerned.