Gurgaon: The Culture Ministry has submitted an ambitious programme to the Planning Commission to educate students in nearly 12,000 senior secondary schools and 5,000 colleges across the country on the rich cultural history of India.

"We have a rich cultural heritage and there is a need to sensitise youngsters about it," said Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni at the presentation ceremony of the photo archives of monuments and museums of West Bengal at the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) here.

Under the Cultural Heritage Volunteer (CHV) scheme, student volunteers will be trained by scholars, educationists and artists. The students will also be engaged in recording and documenting the most threatened forms of cultural heritage.

The ministry has recommended an outlay of Rs.1 billion for the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) and an annual outlay of Rs.200 million for 2007-08 for the scheme. IANS