Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission to promote Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin languages introduced to Delhi NCR schools
Heads of Indraprastha Schools Sahodaya and Delhi Schools Sahodaya Complex, Haryana Progressive Schools Conference (HPSC), and their member principals are being made aware of this mission.
NEW DELHI. In an unprecedented bid to motivate Indian students to learn Asian languages and make them employable and also get closer to the Asian culture, a nation-wide campaign “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022” is taking its shape in India.
The campaign aims at promoting Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin languages in schools, colleges, and universities in New Delhi and NCR towns to begin with. Later the campaign would spread to other parts of the country.
For this, various schools associations are being contacted and the benefits of “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022” are being shared with their member schools. In the long run, the initiative aims to make the Indian youth employable & Self-reliant, and it very well coincides with the core philosophy of the Indian government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) mission.
For this, the ACN Network – an Asian think tank and the force behind conceptualizing, ideating and designing this concept recently held close interactions with a select group of ember schools and heads of Indraprastha Schools Sahodaya and Delhi Schools Sahodaya Complex, which together represent more than 120 CBSE affiliated schools in Delhi NCR.
Previously, similar meetings were held with the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference (HPSC) that, Gurugaon chapter that represents a cluster of over 84 CBSE affiliated schools in the city, as well as a group of the principals of high secondary schools Neemrana, much known for its Japanese Industrial Zone in Rajasthan.
In one such latest meeting held at the Mount Abu Public School on June 8, a high-level ACN Network delegation comprising Koji Sato, Director-General, Japan Foundation, Ms. Suzuki, Japanese Language Advisor, Japan Foundation, Euy Don Park, President, Federation of Korean Associations in India, and VP, Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KOCHAM), Peters LY Chen, Director, Education Division, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, and Asst. Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC), and Sanjeev K Ahuja, Founder, ACN Network and ACN Editorial Advisory Board made a presentation on “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022”.
Dr. Jyoti Arora, Principal, Mount Abu Public School, President of Indraprastha Schools Sahodaya, and Vice-President of Delhi Schools Sahodaya Complex hosted the meeting.
The participating principals included Ms Rashmi Malik from Salwan School, Gurugram, Ms Rashmi Raj Biswal from DAV Pushpanjali, Ms. Pooja Gupta from Springdays School Ashok Vihar, Ms. Alka Kapoor from Modern Public School, Ms. Prachi Grover from Chairperson Vidya Bharati School, Ms. Aruna Sivaraj from Himalaya Public School, Dr.Bhawna from Lovely Public School, Ms Priyanka Gulati from Evergreen School, Vividh Gupta from Bal Bhavan School, Ms. Mini Khanna from Greenfield School, and Dr. Reeta Hashia from Brilliant Convent School.
In a PPT presentation, Sanjeev K Ahuja said that the “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022” would not only add to the skillsets of the students and they also stand better chance of getting hired by the Asian companies (Japanese, Korea, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc), they would also remain attuned with Asian culture which was very close to Indian culture.
“Unfortunately, millions of Indian graduates are either UNEMPLOYED or UNDER-EMPLOYED (Paid less than the potential) for the want of adequate skillsets. Unaware of the huge potential of Asian languages in getting them the employment and shaping their careers in the right direction, the majority of Indian students/youths are inclined to learn Western languages like Spanish, Italian, German, French, etc, and they end up taking no advantage of it,” he added.
In his address, Euy Don Park urged the school principals to encourage their students to learn Asian languages as the future belonged to Asia. “India’s Act East Policy and South Korea’s New Southern Policy are going to bring the two countries closer in the future and bilateral cooperation in the sphere of art, culture, language, education, trade, commerce, and industry was touch new heights in time to come making it relevant for the Indian youths to learn Asian languages such as Korean.”
Koji Sato and Ms. Suzuki from Japan Foundation, and Peters LY Chen from TECC too made the principals aware of various schemes their respective governments had rolled out for the Indian youths to promote Japanese and Mandarin languages, education and culture respectively.
While echoing the sentiments of the member schools, Dr. Jyoti Arora was all praise for the “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022”, and said that most of the member schools would like to introduce Asian languages to their students for the obvious reasons.
However, Dr. Arora, who also happens to be an elected Governing Body Member of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) suggested to the ACN delegation that the Asian languages promotion initiative could add activities and various teachers and students exchange programs to attract more and more students to Asian languages and culture.
Meeting with Haryana Progressive Schools Conference (HPSC), Gurgaon chapter
On May 18, ACN Network hosted a similar meeting with Col. Kr. Pratap Singh, President, HPSC, Gurgoan Chapter as well as six principals of the higher secondary government-run schools from Neemrana at AJU Japanese Hotel in Gurugram.
Apart from Koji Sato, Ms. Suzuki, Euy Don Park, President, Peters LY Chen, and Sanjeev K Ahuja, Ms. Yuka Hayakawa, Director, Education, Japan Foundation, Prof. Vyjayanti Raghavan, Former Chairperson, Centre for Korean Studies, JNU, Prakash Yadav, Founder, AJU Japanese Hotels Group, and J C Pegu, Former, Chief Commissioner, Income tax, New Delhi were also present on this meeting.
Col. Kr. Pratap Singh, who is also the Chairman of CCA Public School, Gurugram said that he was going to start Asian languages for its students from grade IV itself.
“We would take “Asian Languages & Livelihood Mission 2022” to our member schools in Gurugram and motivate their principals to launch Asian languages for the brighter prospects of their students,” he added.
All six principals of the higher secondary government-run schools from Neemrana also pledged to start Asian languages for their students, and sought ways and means to implement the mission.
