Steady Fall in Nepali Students Choosing Language Courses

Nepal is witnessing a decline in the number of students opting for various language courses at Bachelors and Masters levels.

The country’s renowned Tribhuvan University (TU) revealed this as it reported a steady fall in number of students selecting Sanskrit, Maithali, Hindi and Nepal Bhasa literature Bachelors and Masters level, at its affiliated colleges.

While TU is offering these academic courses in more than 15 institutes across the country, most of them have only two students per course despite the existence of at least two permanent staff for each course.

“Students are free to choose what they want to study, we cannot force anyone to choose any particular subject. We, however, can go for proper management of these departments and lecturers across the country by centralizing these classes at one particular college,” says Prof Sudha Tripathi, Rector, TU.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Central Department of Sanskrit at TU Prof Narayan Gautam raised serious concerns over the situation.

“While the colleges in western countries are giving high priority to Sanskrit, we are burning our Sanskrit books, and how can expect our students to show interest in Sanskrit?” he noted.

Prof Narayan urged the government to introduce these languages at the high school level.

When it comes to Hindi courses, the Head of the Central Department of Hindi language at TU Prof Sanjeeta Burma expects more number of students for Hindi course in the future.

Currently, TU has appointed 13 permanent lecturers for Hindi course, 11 each for Maithali and for Nepal Bhasa and 8 for Sanskrit at its affiliated colleges across the country.