State tells schools to hold language camp, teachers object

The directive, issued through a June 22 circular from the state school education department, applies to government and government-aided schools. It has been criticised by teachers, saying they are already burdened with non-academic work and may not be able to conduct another activity during the school term.

MUMBAI: The state government has directed schools across Maharashtra to organise a seven-day ‘Indian Language Summer Camp’ in August, and to preserve attendance records, photographic evidence and reports as proof of compliance.

State tells schools to hold language camp, teachers object

The directive, issued through a June 22 circular from the state school education department, applies to government and government-aided schools. It has been criticised by teachers, saying they are already burdened with non-academic work and may not be able to conduct another activity during the school term.

The initiative falls under the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme, which encourages “multilingual learning”. The circular states that schools can choose any one of 121 Indian languages.

The 28-hour programme, which can be held in phases in August, will introduce students to basic greetings, conversations and vocabulary, as well as role-playing activities, films and cultural programmes in the selected language.

The guidelines also state that each school is expected to have 70 to 100 students in the camp. They may take the help of language, art and music teachers, volunteers and parents. NCERT will provide study material, while SCERT and DIET will coordinate the programme at the state and district levels.

Deepak Pawar, chairperson of the Marathi Abhyas Kendra, has written to the director of SCERT, questioning the need to make students from Classes VI to VIII spend 28 hours learning another Indian language when they are already studying Marathi, Hindi and English. “The choice of learning another language should be left to students and parents, and not be imposed by the government,” he said.

Pawar also said the programme would increase the burden on students, teachers and schools. The organisation said they would protest the decision if it was not withdrawn within 15 days.\

Teacher Ramakant Basane from a zilla parishad school in Thane district said language learning is important but there are many other ways for students to learn new languages without adding another compulsory activity during the academic year. ”We are currently working on SIR, census, and other non-educational works. This is one more thing being imposed.”