‘Northern states should start teaching Marathi first’: Education bodies oppose state’s Hindi decision

Mumbai education groups criticize Maharashtra's decision to make Hindi a compulsory third language, calling it an injustice and linguistic coercion.

Mumbai: Several organisations involved in the education sector have criticised the Maharashtra government’s decision to make Hindi a compulsory third language in primary schools, saying it was an injustice to students.

‘Northern states should start teaching Marathi first’: Education bodies oppose state’s Hindi decision

Organisations such as the Marathi Abhyas Kendra, Maharashtra State Secondary and Higher Secondary Principals’ Association, Amhi Shikshak Social Organisation, Maharashtra State Education Institutions Mahamandal, Maharashtra Progressive Teachers Association, and Maharashtra State Art Teachers Association have sent a letter to the school education minister requesting him to withdraw the decision. Senior educationist and member of the state-level steering committee formed for quality and effective implementation, Ramesh Panse, has also supported this letter.

In their letter, the organisations said that Hindi should be made compulsory in Maharashtra only after the northern states start teaching Marathi or a Dravidian language. “We feel that north Indians need to learn Marathi more than Maharashtra needs to learn Hindi,” the letter said.

The Marathi Ekikaran Samiti also strongly opposed this decision, saying Hindi is not the national language and its compulsion is linguistic coercion. The compulsion of teaching a third language in schools is an injustice to students, it said.