An Indian military school has decided to introduce the Chinese language, a defence official said Wednesday.

The students at the Rashtriya Military School (RMS) at Chail in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh would be learning the Chinese language as part of their academic curriculum from this year.

"RMS Chail is one of the leading five military schools of the country which is starting foreign language Chinese in its curriculum from the current academic session as a pilot project," said Lt Col Arun Kulkarni, principal of the school. "Stress is laid on all round personality development of the students enabling and training them to be good officers."

The Chinese language in the school will be introduced from class VI to X and it will be compulsory for all the students.

The Chail military school in Solan district, some 120 km from Chandigarh, is one of the oldest military residential schools in Asia.

The school traces its history to the King George Royal Indian Military College, which was established in Jalandhar in Punjab in February 1922 and laid the foundation for the other four military schools - Ajmer, Dholpur, in Rajasthan, and Bangalore and Belgaum in Karnataka.

All these schools provide education to the children of defence personnel and civilians to prepare them for their entry as officers in Indian armed forces.

A statement issued by defence officials from Chandigarh said the military school at Chail has produced a number of officers for India's prestigious National Defence Academy.