Use any Indian language as optional medium, says CBSE

Subject : Governance

Concept :

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its schools to consider using Indian languages as an optional medium of instruction to make multilingual education a reality.

About the initiative:

The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), under directions of the Ministry of Education, has started gearing up to produce textbooks in 22 scheduled Indian languages to initiate teaching-learning through Indian language medium in addition to English medium in CBSE schools.
These steps are in line with the provisions under National Education Policy 2020.
The National Education Policy (NEP) says that wherever possible the medium of instruction in schools until Grade V and preferably until Grade VIII — should be the mother tongue or the local or regional language.

Constitutional Provisions

Article 350 of the Indian Constitution states that “It shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups”.
Part XVII of the Indian constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.

The Constitutional provisions related to the Eighth Schedule are:

Article 344: Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution.
Article 351: It provides for the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.

Official Languages of India:

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution lists the official languages of the republic of India.
It consists of 22 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992.
Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003 which came into force in 2004.

National Education Policy

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to transform India’s education system by ensuring universal access to quality education from pre-primary to secondary levels by 2030.
The policy emphasizes multilingualism and Indian languages will be given priority. The medium of instruction until at least grade 5 will be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language.
The policy also focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy, and a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH, will be established to improve assessment reforms.
The policy aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50% by 2035.
The Centre and states will work together to increase public investment in the education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
The policy also emphasizes teacher education and a separate Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups will be established.
The policy aims to promote holistic and multidisciplinary education with multiple entry/exit options, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) will be established to support research and innovation.
The Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as an overarching umbrella body for the promotion of the higher education sector, excluding medical and legal education.