Higher Education Saga-VI: Education policy - The Amma Medium vs. Mummy Medium

Hyderabad: Should Telugu or English be the learning language of children at the primary level? The National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) insists that the medium of instruction, wherever possible, at least till class V and preferably till class VII and beyond should be in the home language, mother tongue or local language.

Beyond this, students should be allowed to continue to learn it as a language wherever possible.

Contrary to this policy prescription, the Telangana State has announced that it will have an education policy of its own. Besides, it has announced a policy decision to start classes IV to 12 with English medium as part of the Integrated Residential Schools (IRS) system.

The dichotomy between the two education policies brings to fore the question- what should be the medium of instruction? What are the reasons for the NEP-2020 to insist on “the mother tongue/home language or local language?”

Firstly, the beginning of learning falls within multiple fields of study.

For example, an infant picks up sounds of different words from a mother, father, uncle, grandmother or grandfather and interacts with others around.

According to experts in cognitive studies, it is clear that an infant's cognitive capacity to discern and discriminate the sounds being picked up and spoken by a mother (female voice), father (male voice) and the like. It shows an element of cause and effect relation at work.

Causality at work is the basis for arriving at rational conclusions or recognition by identifying different people speaking and interacting with an infant.

For example, the people all around an infant are speaking Telugu language. However, for an infant, picking up sounds spoken by multiple people is like interacting and learning through 'multiple mediums'.

An infant baby picks up the sounds of the words of a language from a mother. The phonics teaching and learning process allows one to learn the relation between the sound and the spoken language.

Speaking to The Hans India, “It is this aspect that the NEP-2020 formalised into a policy prescription for teaching in the mother tongue”, opines Professor Narayanan Srinivasan of the Department of Cognitive Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.