For the first time, 103 students from the US, Canada, and Denmark appeared for Class 1 to Class 8 Marathi language exam through the Maharashtra State Board of Open Schooling this year on May 18, the results of which were declared on Wednesday.
The exam was conducted by the Maharashtra education department in collaboration with the Brihanmaharashtra Mandal North America. Marathi being awarded the Classical Language status in October last year spurred organisations to conduct this examination.
The students were admitted across 60 Marathi schools/centres across the three countries and were provided Marathi textbooks published by state board publisher Balbharti. While the maximum (37) students were from the USA, 22 students were from Canada and 14 from Denmark. A healthy gender ratio was also observed as 53 of these students were male and 50 female.
Milind Joshi, president of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, said, “This is an extremely welcome step. People are taking care of their language, culture, and traditions after going to foreign lands. We should do the same here.”
