The Centre has tweaked its draft education policy after massive uproar in the south over the adoption of a three-language formula in schools — Hindi, English and the local mother tongue in non-Hindi states.
“In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages (one language at the literature level) in their modular Board Examinations some time during secondary school,” says the revised draft.
The expert panel, which prepared the National Education Policy, made a change to the draft even before consultations could begin.
The original draft required students from non-Hindi states to study Hindi and English apart from the regional languages. “The study of languages by students in the non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English,” the draft prepared by a committee headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan had said.
In Tamil Nadu, parties of every political shade — from the opposition DMK to the Left and actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam — slammed the report, which they saw as a precursor to the imposition of Hindi “The DMK will never allow imposition of Hindi. It will raise its voice in Parliament and outside and strive to stall it,” DMK’s MP Kanimozhi Karunandhi said.
Although the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), an ally of the BJP, was muted in its response, the Tamil Nadu government maintained that the state will persist with a two-language formula – Tamil and English.
Stung by the backlash, the Centre moved swiftly with Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar, in whose term the draft policy was readied, stepping forth to clarify that there was no attempt to impose any language. However, with protests showing no signs of abating, the controversial clause itself was tweaked.
When asked, a senior HRD ministry official said the clause was changed by the Kasturirangan Committee itself.
Kasturirangan said the idea was for a language policy that was multilingual, flexible and choice left to state, institutions and even parents. “But when this particular para went into the policy book and when you read it as an outsider with not much of a connection with the various elements of the language policy, it looked a little out of step. We realized the moment there was a concern expressed in certain quarters,” he said.
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