There is a new found interest in Samskrit all over the world, in India in particular. People are thronging to learn Samskrit. But at the same time we see a sharp decline in number of Samskrit students in colleges and universities, decline in sanctioned teaching posts and a steep fall in scholarship amongst the Samskrit teachers in general. Samskrit Education is at a crossroads.

There is no point in blaming the Governments and their policies when we the Samskrit fraternity ourselves have abandoned Samskrit as a language. How do you expect the politicians to make Samskrit a compulsory language when we ourselves have not made Samskrit the compulsory language of Samskrit professors and teachers at least, leave apart the language of Samskrit classes, Samskrit departments, Samskrit Universities, Samskrit Vidyalayas or Mahavidyalayas? Do we really love Samskrit or do we simply adore and extol it?

A mighty question is what our priorities are as far as the Samskrit Education is concerned. Mightier question is how to educate people, policy makers and thought leaders in particular, regarding the need and indispensability of Samskrit. The mightiest question is how to make our own Samskrit professors and teachers understand the present realities and become change agents.

The objective of Samskrit Education is certainly to understand the past, to appreciate the literature, to access the knowledge hidden in the Shastras and to enrich, enlighten and empower our lives through Samskrit. But it alone will not do much good for Samskrit. Only that subject of study will be more relevant and sought after which provides solutions to present problems of mankind, which caters to future needs of the nation, which fulfills the societal aspirations, which leads to new inventions and innovations, which promises to usher in a new era, which throws light on undiscovered paths and that which welcomes and accepts changes. Are we, Samskrit scholars, prepared to take up these challenges?

This is the time to debate on the immediate steps and long term action plan to be taken for the restructuring of Samskrit Education. Did anyone make any study on whether establishing Samskrit universities did really make any difference? Is any scientific survey made of the reasons for the decline in Samskrit students’ number? Is there any authentic collection of data regarding the status of Samskrit studies? Is any proper study made regarding the utility and shelf value of the PhD theses produced by Samskrit Departments? Is there a single significant experimental project in Samskrit pedagogy anywhere that made some impact in Samskrit teaching? There could be a few hundred such questions which might get “nay” as an answer. We have to go a long, long way. But, alas, we haven’t even yet started the journey.

Are Samskrit scholars not obsessed with ‘what to teach’? Is ‘how to teach’ not equally important if not more important? Was a seminar or workshop ever held on how to teach Samskrit at school level, college level and university level? Is the demand that Samskrit should be made compulsory and it should be taught from first standard itself, i.e. the question ‘from which standard to which standard’ is more important or the question ‘whether you teach THE Samskrit or you teach ABOUT Samskrit’ is more important?

Our immediate attention is needed on 1)How to teach Samskrit at various levels and through various methods and approaches to language teaching in order to make Samskrit learning more attractive and effective. 2) Stupendous task of training teachers 3) Strategic transformation of Samskrit education/institutions 4) Popularizing “Simple Standard Samskrit” for the purposes of communication, medium of instruction, administration etc. 5) Preparing Samskrit students for the fast approaching Digital India and beyond.

External search for internal problems may not yield results. Accusing others will not bring change within. Hence it is time for us to throw out our inaction and to spend our time, money and energy to transform Samskrit education. Let us reprioritize and have a grand strategic action plan for Samskrit. Let us give a new impetus to Samskrit Education. Let us infuse hope and aspirations amongst Samskrit students. Let us instill confidence amongst Samskrit teachers. Let service and sacrifice characterize us, the Samskrit professors and teachers!