The good news for India-China people-to-people relations is that India's Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) plans to introduce Chinese language courses in the 11,000 schools affiliated to it from Class VI onwards beginning in 2011. The bad news is that finding teachers is a problem. The better news, according to a report in the English daily Indian Express is that the Chinese gov-ernment has offered to help with course material, and, if needed, also send language teachers.

The best news on this front though, is that Premier Wen Jiabao's three-day visit, which began today, may quicken whatever the authorities in India and China decide to do about it. Indian media reports said that India's Ministry of External Affairs has already moved on the matter.

According to another report in The Times of India, academicians said the language would find many takers. The newspaper quoted Jyoti Bose, principal of Springdales School in Delhi as saying, "We tried to introduce Chinese in our school last year and there were quite a few students who wanted to take it up, but the problem was finding teachers."

The decision to introduce Chinese as part of the CBSE curriculum was announced by India's Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal after his talks on the subject with China's Education Minister Yuan Guiren on September 15 in Beijing.

The best way to introduce China in India is to introduce its language in schools so that "our kids develop interest and knowledge about China," Sibal had told reporters in Beijing on that occasion.

He felt it would be necessary for the Indian government to collaborate with China to specify standards of teaching and examination and the modalities of training Indian teachers. Soon after, an expert committee set up in November finalized the curriculum and identified preparation of textbooks as the first priority.

Scholars and teachers are developing the curriculum and textbooks, and the CBSE will be conducting courses to train teachers. According to the Indian Express report, schools interested in introducing the language from class VI in the coming academic year (2011-12) have been asked to confirm the decision so that CBSE can work on the details and indicate their needs, if any, to the Chinese embassy. China has offered to help with state-of-the-art hardware and software.

Ahead of Wen's visit, the report said, China has also offered to provide textual and audio-visual materials for the course. The CBSE offers 32 languages at the secondary and senior secondary levels, 12 of which are foreign languages.

Bose was quoted as saying that once the course is introduced, "it should be continued in senior classes." On the increasing interest in China and learning Chinese at the university level, The Times of India cited Sreemati Chakrabarti, a China expert and Professor in the East Asian Studies Department of Delhi University. "We have been getting 700- 800 applications for just 100 seats in the last few years", said Chakrabarti. "But there is a huge shortfall of people who can teach Chinese in India".

She felt that introducing Chinese language at the school level can make a "big difference in the long run" and ensure that there is more scope for interaction in the future.