New Delhi: The Secretary of the Central Education Board, Syed Tanveer Ahmed, has written a letter to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), urging them to include the Arabic language in the list of subjects it offers. He stated, “If Arabic is included in the NIOS curriculum, a large number of students studying in madrasas will be able to benefit from it.”
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasizes the importance of learning foreign languages and encourages students to pursue them. In this context, the inclusion of Arabic in the NIOS subject list will help generate interest among students and motivate them to learn foreign languages.
Additionally, Syed Tanveer Ahmed advised NIOS to allow students who wish to appear for matriculation (10th) and intermediate (12th) exams in Urdu to register without the condition of an Urdu center. Currently, NIOS permits Urdu-medium students to enroll only in locations where Urdu centers exist, whereas many cities lack such centers. As a result, numerous students are deprived of the opportunity to appear for exams, which is a violation of their rights.
He further added, “Urdu-medium students can appear for exams without attending an NIOS Urdu center, as many organizations and educational institutions across the country provide online coaching for them. These students can prepare through such platforms and become eligible for exams. Therefore, we demand that NIOS allow the enrollment of all Urdu-medium students and remove the mandatory requirement of contact classes.”
He emphasized that if NIOS accepts this demand, it will provide better opportunities for Urdu-medium students to pursue higher education.
