In its circular dated January 25, the board announced its project, which was launched on February 3 with a workshop at the India International Centre, New Delhi. The note says ``due to several socio-cultural factors, the emphasis on reading, learning of Sanskrit has been neglected'' and says there is a need to ``restore the pride of this language in the educational map of this country''!

The communicative approach emphasises the participation and interaction of students in the learning of a language, using day-to-day situations and regular activities. CBSEintroduced the communicative approach for Course A English in Classes IX and X five years ago. It has dubbed it a huge success but its move to extend it to Classes XI and XII and below Class IX ran into difficulties with the National Council for Educational Research and Training.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), which is the parent ministry for CBSE, has already indicated the primacy of Sanskrit, by allocating it over 40 per cent of the money slated for development of languages. Under the 1999 Union Budget, the development of Sanskrit education has received Rs 10 crore while the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan has received Rs 14.51 crore and the Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan has got Rs 4 crore. In contrast, the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language received only Rs 4.10 crore and modern Indian languages have received Rs 2.85 crore.