As Chancellor Angela Merkel raised with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the issue of dropping German as an alternative to Sanskrit in central schools, the German ambassador here today voiced confidence that a "practical solution" will be found soon.
"I talked to the Indian Government, the PMO, different ministries and I will continue to do so.... I am pretty confident that together with the Indian government, respecting the Indian laws, we will find a workable solution," German Ambassador Michael Steiner told reporters here.
German Chancellor Merkel today utilised a meeting with Modi to raise the move to drop German as an alternative to Sanskrit as a third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas and was assured it would be looked into within the confines of the Indian system, when the two leaders met on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Brisbane.
Steiner said that he had been confident before and was now even more confident of early resolution after the two leaders discussed the issue.
"If you look at the commonality between Sanskrit and German, both in grammars and words, you see how near we are and that is what we want to foster. You need to preserve that I think it is good.
"If students want to learn a modern language and if students want to be in the globalised world and use language skills, you need to also foster this possibility and give this option to those who want to do it. We have the same intention here, I think we will find a solution," Steiner also said.
Asked about today's meeting between Merkel and Modi, Steiner said, "We are very confident that we will find a practical solution which in the end will be win-win-win situation for the children, for India and for Germany."
About 68,000 students of classes VI to VIII, likely to be affected by the decision, will be given an option to pick the language of their choice as annual exams are barely three months away.
The KVs will provide counselling to the students.
Irani said "an investigation" has already been launched into the signing of an MoU in 2011 enabling German being taught as the third language.
