Opinion Mother-tongue in the classroom: CBSE doesn’t understand students’ aspirations
Children gravitate towards languages which promise socioeconomic mobility
Is the shift away from English out of sync with a rapidly changing knowledge economy? 
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A few days ago, we attended the orientation programme for our child who is in high school. The purpose was to make parents/guardians aware of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) guidelines on promotions based on the NEP 2020. Notably, most parents wanted the school to offer foreign languages — French, German and Spanish — instead of Hindi for Class X and above, on two grounds. First, it is difficult to score high marks in Hindi, and second, the foreign languages increase their future employability.
How does one read this demand alongside the CBSE’s latest directive to offer education at the primary level in the mother tongue or the dominant language prevalent in the state ? The idea aligns with the objective of the NEP 2020, which emphasises education in the mother tongue. A laudable initiative, it is fraught with many practical problems and invites questions. First, which language will be given preference in linguistically diverse cities like Delhi? Many children speak in different dialects at home, but their mother tongue is considered Hindi. Second, is it possible for the school to recruit teachers and build up academic infrastructure based on the students’ linguistic preferences? Who will bear the expenses for the extra resources?
If the CBSE were really serious, it would have conducted assessment studies to understand the specific requirements of the students based on regional diversity and language preferences, and trained teachers accordingly. The pedagogy and curriculum of the teachers’ training institutes also need to be changed. Schools located in non-metropolitan cities would suffer more due to their lack of infrastructure and resources. Schools have been given the task of mapping students’ languages and training teachers accordingly for the new academic session by July 2025.
The process of knowledge production in India is dominated by the English language right from primary to institutions of higher learning. This is more apparent in technical, medical and scientific research. The policy to impart engineering education in Hindi was not very successful. Most Hindi textbooks contained several English words. The nodal agency to promote translation in India under the National Translation Mission is the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysuru. One wonders whether the CBSE sought its expertise as even the translated textbooks (links are provided in the CBSE circular) carry multiple English words.
To illustrate, lesson No 10 of the Class II Mathematics textbook in Telugu, titled “Joyful Mathematics”, depicts kids at a funfair. The entire event is described in English. There are 13 English words, such as project, market, pen, bread packet, snacks, notebook, etc. Similarly, in the Class III Gujarati textbook for Art and Visual Images, Activity 7 contains nine English words to explain various activities for children. A simple Google search will provide the translation for these English words into Telugu or Gujarati. What purpose do these half-baked textbooks serve?
In numerous families in India, parents belong to different regions, and the children speak multiple languages at home. Who decides which will be the mother tongue? Some languages do not have a standardised script. Then there are languages that exist only in an oral form. Will they be sidelined from pedagogy? Many families with transferable jobs or even migrants will find it difficult to cope with such policies.
In 2020, Payal Kumari topped the BA Archaeology and History exam of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. She was the odd student in the Malayalam-medium local school, the daughter of migrant labourers. The student population is rapidly declining in the state due to the low birth rate and the shift to English-medium schools. For migrant families, access to quality education even in the local language is a great investment for their children’s future.
Studies have found that, barring North India, where children are mostly proficient in only one language, in other regions of the country, children grow up speaking two or more languages. So, in northern India, if the schools fail to recruit teachers for multiple languages, they would end up falling back on Hindi. The easy availability of Hindi textbooks will facilitate such a choice. In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court said that it is not mandatory for states to implement the NEP 2020. Will the CBSE circular end up making the NEP mandatory?
For many Indians, knowledge of English is a ticket to upward socioeconomic mobility. The changing aspirational trend is reflected in the enrolment figures of English-medium private schools, even in rural India. When the world is rapidly transitioning towards AI and digital literacy, students and parents will gravitate towards languages that ensure better employability. It seems that the CBSE is unaware of the needs and aspirations of its stakeholders. The new initiative is full of good intentions but required more precise planning. The education scenario in India is plagued with systemic inequities that have created a huge gap between those fortunate enough to be schooled in the language of global opportunities and others languishing in the shadows of mediocre schools, unimaginative pedagogy and inadequately trained teachers.
The writer teaches History at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. The views expressed are personal
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