Staff crunch may wreck CBSE’s Mandarin plans

While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced Mandarin as a language in the Class VI syllabus, affiliated schools in the city are not scrambling to add the Chinese language to their curriculum.

Due to shortage of credential Mandarin teachers and not many takers, several schools might not offer the language as an option.

The CBSE announcement has generated a huge demand for the teachers but city principals admit that there is a shortage of people who can teach Mandarin Chinese in India.

“Suddenly everyone wants to learn Mandarin Chinese, but there are very few credential teachers. It is very difficult to find native speakers. Hence, we may not offer it,” said Deepshikha Srivastav, principal of Rajhans Vidyalaya, Andheri. She added that the solution would be to hire teachers from overseas, but it will be very expensive.

Echoing her views, Francis Joseph of Ryan International Group of Schools said, “We do not want the students to merely learn to read Mandarin. We want them to be able to converse fluently. It will be hard to find qualified teachers, who hold more than mere diplomas in the language.”

Also, though the group had introduced Mandarin in one of their ICSE schools in Bangalore, Joseph feels that Mandarin teachers are hard to find in Mumbai.

“Since Delhi and Bangalore have a lot of foreigners residing in the city, it is not a much of a problem finding teachers there. But, Mumbai is hard pressed for such teachers,” he added.

According to a Mandarin teacher Zhenni Laoshi, who has worked in the city’s international schools, not many want to specialise in the language as it pays low and is not much in demand. “There is a shortage as there has been no demand yet. There hasn’t been a career opportunity that people would consider.”

Meanwhile, to meet the shortage, the CBSE has planned to train teachers before initiating the course. The curriculum has been designed by a committee of experts, formed in November, whose priority would be to make textbooks.