Three-language policy removed by the Education committee

Three-language policy removed by the Education committee
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Highlights

  • The “imposition” of Hindi, in southern states has been triggering political protests.
  • The reference to Hindi for non-Hindi speaking states immediately set off protests.

NEW DELHI: On Monday, in the draft National Education Policy, the controversial reference to the three-language policy was removed by the committee, which was headed by scientist K Kasturirangan, as he had informed the government that, there had been an "inadvertent error" in the text that has been submitted for public feedback.

As the language of English is referred to be "elitist" and the "imposition" of Hindi, in southern states has been triggering political protests. The government clarified that, the draft was recommendatory and the students shall be given flexibility over choice of language under the three-language model in schools.

R Subrahmanyam, secretary in the HRD ministry, said, "The draft is not government policy but recommendations of the NEP committee. The committee said there had been an inadvertent error. The revised draft has now been uploaded for feedback from states and public for a period of 30 days. The Centre does not hold any view on the matter now."

Kasturirangan had said, "The (language) policy envisages that every state also learns one language from another state, that is the recommendation as it was the final view of the committee. The committee has been very sensitive about this particular issue... If there is any misreading of the manuscript, I will look into it and make appropriate corrections."

The earlier draft read, "…the study of three languages by students in Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English".

The reference to Hindi for non-Hindi speaking states immediately set off protests.

Although, the choice of available languages will be left to the state boards. Over the past two days, the government had fielded external affairs minister S Jaishankar and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to clarify that, no alteration has been taking place in the three-language formula.

"It is a very progressive report recommending some radical measures like restructuring of undergraduate programmes by bringing in broad spectrum changes. Another important recommendation the NEP committee made is on the National Research Foundation to bring in all research work under one roof," Subrahmanyam said.

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