The board of Silicon Valley’s Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) has voted to introduce Hindi as a world language into its curriculum, making it the first public school district in California to offer Hindi.
The FUSD School Board voted four to one to launch a pilot program that will see Hindi in the curriculum of Horner Middle School and Irvington High School for the 2024–2025 school year. The decision has been met with great enthusiasm and support from the Indian American community, which makes up nearly 65% of the student population in these two schools.
The battle to include Hindi in the FUSD curriculum started almost two decades ago, with the Indian American community advocating for cultural representation and a more inclusive education. Despite previous efforts, FUSD had adopted Mandarin in two schools and offered multiple other languages but had not considered Hindi until now.
During the meeting, FUSD board members Vivek Prasad, Sharon Coco and Larry Sweeney and president Yajing Zhang showed strong support for the proposal, citing the welfare of students as a major factor in their decision.
“I look at the demand, and I look at the value that this Hindi offering will produce for the community… for me it’s a no-brainer,” said trustee Vivek Prasad, endorsing the pilot.
“If this is successful and if other schools want to offer Hindi, they will be able to in the future… so at this moment in time I’m in favor,” was the response of trustee Sharon Coco, highlighting her commitment to the student community of FUSD.
“I’m positive that it [the pilot] will go to all high schools and all middle schools, and they will embrace it,” stated trustee Larry Sweeney in support of the proposal.
“Who do we serve?” asked board president Yajing Zhang. “Students! And so do we serve the students’ interest if there is a huge evident demand for this class?”
Hindi ranks as the third most spoken language in the world. It is predominantly spoken in India, where approximately 43.6% speak Hindi as a native language. India is an emerging economy categorized as one of the fastest-growing countries in the South Asian region. The report Global Economic Prospects, January 2024 by the World Bank anticipates the Indian economy to grow fastest among the world’s largest economies.
