Chandigarh, July 4 -- The French language will be introduced in Class 6 of 26 government schools across Haryana from July 4 as the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government attempts to expand its foreign language programme conceived last year and supported by the French Embassy, top government officials said. At the core of this initiative, under which German and Japanese languages will also be introduced in a phased manner likely from next academic sessions, is the objective of equipping government school students with language skills that can improve their prospects in higher education and careers in diverse sectors, education department officials associated with this programme said. The programme picked up pace after chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, who also holds the finance department portfolio, said in his 2025-26 fiscal budget speech that the "French government has promised" to train Haryana teachers to teach the French language to interested students in government schools. An agreement was signed with the French Embassy last year and in the 2026-27 budget speech, Saini again informed the state assembly that 60-teachers were being trained in French and that during the current financial year, 100 additional teachers will be trained. "I am eagerly looking forward to our Class 6 students of a few government-run schools, who will start learning French from Saturday. We will expand the ambit of this ambitious programme in a phased manner," education minister Mahipal Dhanda told HT. On Friday, a day ahead of the launch of the scheme, the French Embassy officials handed over certificates to 26 government school teachers who passed the test after a year-long training, in a function held in Gurugram. Officials said 60 teachers underwent training, but 26 qualified the test. Officials said that the 26 teachers have completed their A1 level certification exams and are now ready to appear for A2 DELF examinations. The qualified teachers will now undergo the final phase of their mandatory residential training at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Gurugram, from July 6 to 10. Principal secretary (school education) Vijay Singh Dahiya said that the main feature of the programme has been the extensive training imparted to teachers. "This programme has been designed in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023," said Dahiya, adding that both NEP and NCF encourage exposure to multiple languages, including foreign languages to build cognitive and cultural bandwidth of students, without adding to their existing academic workload. During the current academic year, French will be taught to Class 6 students as a "fun language", an ungraded activity-based introduction that will cover culture, festivals, songs, games and basic conversation that has been designed to build curiosity without exam pressure. "In subsequent years, French will be offered as a structured, optional subject with a graded curriculum, building towards functional proficiency," officials said, pointing out that as per NCF-2023 guidelines, French classes will not increase existing school hours. Officials said that as more teachers are being trained, the number of schools where French will be taught are set to be increased in the coming years. Under this programme, 60 teachers were initially selected and given continuous offline training at SCERT Gurugram and weekly online training by the French experts of Alliance Francaise Delhi and Hyderabad. Out of 60 selected teachers, 37 have been fully trained so far under the French language programme and 26 were given certificates on Friday to start teaching in the first phase of the French language programme. The teachers also underwent internationally recognised pedagogical training under the Bureau Europeen de Langues et Cultures (BELC) programme in Goa, where they were exposed to modern techniques for teaching French. Officials said that 90 hours a year (three 45-minute periods a week in 40 weeks) will be drawn to teach French from existing non-core time allocations such as library (10 hours), art education (30 hours) and vocational education (50 hours). School heads have already been directed to coordinate with the respective subject teachers to release the time table for French classes without disrupting core learning outcomes in those areas. The assessment of French subject will be based on participation with no pressure of grade, said officials. "There will be a half-yearly assessment to check listening, speaking and basic vocabulary through activity-based tasks such as songs and picture-based conversation, followed by a detailed year-end review, covering oral participation, reading, writing and overall engagement," said officials handling this project....