Boards told to make Punjabi mandatory

Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, January 27

The state Education Department has written to the chairmen of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to strictly follow the guidelines of the Punjab Learning of Punjabi and other Languages Act, 2008, which makes it mandatory to teach Punjabi as a compulsory subject in schools up to Class X.

The Education Department Director-cum-Director Public Instructions (DPI) (Secondary Education) has written to the chairmen of the ICSE and the CBSE that no board or institution shall award matriculation certificate to any student, unless he has passed the Class X examination in Punjabi subject.

It has been brought into the notice of the department that many schools in the state, affiliated with the ICSE and the CBSE, are not adhering to this provision, wrote the DPI to the ICSE and the CBSE. Such misconduct and violation warrants penal action under Section 8 of the Act as the Act empowers the state government to not only impose penalties on the defaulting schools but it may also issue directions for disaffiliating the schools with the ICSE and the CBSE, wrote the DPI.