APS students frequently change cities, teaching regional languages will put burden on them: Govt

Teaching regional languages to Army Public School students will put an unnecessary burden on them as they have to frequently change cities because of the nature of the service of their parents, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said on Friday.

Army Public Schools (APS) have been established to cater to education requirements for the wards of Indian Army Personnel who hail from diverse backgrounds and regions of the country, he said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

''Unlike other schools with students from the immediate and extended locality, all 136 Army Public Schools are enrolled primarily with wards of Indian Army personnel, who have been transferred-in from another location,'' he explained.

Due to the nature of service, Indian Army Personnel are transferred frequently, at short notice, and mostly in the middle of the academic calendar and at times in field locations away from their families, the minister noted.

''The relatively limited period of stay of families with serving personnel in station and frequent transfer necessitated standardisation of the languages i.e. English, Hindi and Sanskrit which was undertaken since the inception of the schools in 1950,'' he mentioned.

The change of regional language in the middle of an academic session will place an unnecessary educational burden, in addition to emotional turmoil due to academic instability that Army wards have to endure when transferred into a new environment every few years, Bhatt stated.