Modi’s Emphasis on Mother Tongue Learning is Systematic Evasion of Social Justice: Stakeholders

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Modi’s Emphasis on Mother Tongue Learning is Systematic Evasion of Social Justice: Stakeholders

New Delhi (Sputnik): After six years of deliberations, discussions, and drafts, the Narendra Modi Cabinet approved its New Education Policy on Wednesday, aimed at transforming the Indian education system.

Students and parents have raised questions over the relevance of mother tongue learning in a competitive job market as they consider the policy will make children lag behind. The fears come after the government enshrined mother tongue instruction at the primary school level in its National Education Policy, 

Other aspects of the education policy are facing flak for “systematically evading social justice”.

Shweta, a 22-year-old banking exam aspirant from Mohali, is infuriated with the reform as she studied in a school affiliated to the state board where the medium of instruction was the regional language Punjabi. Along with this, she says the environment was not conducive for learning, it was challenging to pursue higher studies with English textbooks as her entire education up to mid-level was in her mother tongue.

Shweta, who is now facing difficulties preparing for competitive exams in English, points to a lack of confidence in those who cannot speak the language because they are not taught it from the beginning of school.

While introducing English in Andhra Pradesh government run schools, state education minister Adimulapu Suresh said: “The employment opportunities are drastically changing and after 20 years, there will be altogether different kinds of jobs. In order to compete in global employment or career opportunities, one has to be prolific in English. Our government wants to provide that opportunity to students from poor and marginal backgrounds”.

Aman, a PhD student from Jawaharlal Nehru University, while sharing his experience of being taught in Hindi until graduation level, underscored the difficulties any student can face in moving to English for higher studies if their base in English is not strong enough.

Modi’s Emphasis on Mother Tongue Learning is Systematic Evasion of Social Justice: Stakeholders

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Meanwhile, private schools are planning to approach the government with demands to teach lessons in mother tongue, a move that is not popular with parents.

Mandeep Kaur, who has two young daughters, is annoyed by the proposed reform. Kaur says: “My kids are already well-versed in English. They understand it better than us parents. It will be difficult for the kids to cope with this changes and further it will be difficult for them in higher classes”.

Saarthi Education Foundation, a non-profit start-up, founding director Ankit Arora acknowledges the logic behind mother tongue as medium of instruction but points out that it is problematic for low-fee private English medium schools as it will not improve their quality of education.

Research Supports Mother Tongue Learning

A study published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) called ‘The Importance of mother tongue-based schooling for educational quality’ states that the use of a familiar language to teach beginning literacy facilitates an understanding.

 Dismissing the criticism over the reform and raising objection over the understanding of the reform, Puri says that students are not able to converse in English because they are not taught properly in English.

“They don’t understand because they are not taught English properly at all. If any criticism of the public institution is to be done, that is to be done in the whole context, which is that they are not taught any of the subjects properly be it Hindi, Punjabi or arithmetic. They lag behind because they are not taught properly,” he says.

As per the 2011 Census, English is the primary language – mother tongue – of 256,000 people in India, the second language of 83 million people, and the third language of another 46 million people.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

Modi’s Emphasis on Mother Tongue Learning is Systematic Evasion of Social Justice: Stakeholders

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