The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), an autonomous institution under the Union education ministry, has hinted at adding Nepali as a subject at the senior secondary level.

The move follows a request by Raju Bista, the BJP MP of Darjeeling, to Union minister of state for education, Sukanta Majumdar.

“I had mentioned to him (Majumdar) that Nepali is one of the 22 official languages recognised under the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution and that it should be included in the NIOS curriculum at the senior secondary level,” said Bista. He made the proposal after receiving a representation from the Darjeeling Nepali Girls Social Service Centre requesting the same.

Majumdar discussed the matter with NIOS authorities, and on May 23, Pankaj Arora, the chairperson of NIOS, sent a letter to Bista on the issue.

The letter read “... in line with the vision of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is in the process of developing course material in all the scheduled languages, and NIOS is to align its course development with them ... the inclusion of the Nepali language at the senior secondary level will be taken
up as soon as this broader curricular initiative completes.”

“This is an important development, and we hope Nepali will soon be incorporated in the list of languages taught through NIOS. This is a significant step forward in recognising our nation’s linguistic and cultural diversity,” said the MP.