Education in mother tongue in India

CBSE has taken a new step towards the education system. The Central Board of Secondary Education allowed its affiliated school to offer education in India languages (mother tongue) as medium of instruction from Pre-Primary to Class XII. CBSE announced the news through a tweet on July 21st, 2023. Ministry of Education and Hon’ble Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan appreciated the CBSE for this step. As per the CBSE’s circular, the Ministry of Education has directed NCERT for preparing new textbooks through 22 scheduled Indian languages. The NCERT has taken this serious task on highest priority so that textbooks in 22 scheduled languages can be made available to all students from next sessions. Currently the medium of instruction is Hindi & English in majority of CBSE affiliated schools.

In addition to the English medium the Higher Education also has started to produce text books in India languages. The Higher Education initiated a learning-teaching process and conduct examinations through Indian languages. As per CBSE the school has to be the foundation of this initiative where Higher Education has started to respond to this need. The CBSE affiliated schools have to play a big role in this great endeavour by offering education through Indian languages.

As per the circulation, this initiative of multilingual education and use of Indian language (mother tongue) present many challenges, availability of skilled teachers capable of teaching in multilingual settings, the creation of high-quality multilingual textbooks and limited time available.

As of now 2.54 crore students are studying in 28,886 CBSE affiliated schools and there are almost 12.56 lakhs students deputed in these schools across India.

Currently students and parents have some questions in their mind such as What are the importance of teaching using mother tongue, Disadvantages of mother tongue education or Mother tongue as a medium of instruction benefits and challenges, etc.