Mind your language, your third language, please!

Mind your language, your third language, please!

 

Speaking up | Expert panel, too, against going for a foreign language | Hindi likley to be made mandatory till class VI or VII across country

 

New Delhi: An expert committee on language policy is singing the same tune as that of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry. The committee has rejected the idea of teaching a foreign language as third language. A final decision on scrapping or continuing with the three-language formula in school curriculum is yet to be taken. The committee is also mulling over developing a four-language formula.

 

The language policy committee was constituted by the HRD ministry in December last year, after the ministry revoked the decision to teach German as a third language in schools.

 

The UPA government had replaced German with Sanskrit as third language. Smriti Irani, after taking over as HRD minister, felt the need to have a comprehensive language policy in order to create a clear-cut road map for all regional and classical Indian languages. The committee is also drawing plans to promote, preserve and develop Indian languages.

 

“It is the first time that languages have not been discussed as English versus Hindi. This time, it is English versus the rest of the Indian languages,” said a committee member. The members comprise representatives from across India. All regional representatives have suggested mandatory learning of regional languages at the school level.

 

“The problem is that not many text books are available in Indian languages, making us fall back on English. States have highlighted that new text books need to be written in regional languages. There will be a need to train teachers and resource persons in these regional languages,” said another member.

 

The committee will also be highlighting the lack of study material for professional courses in regional languages. “For an engineering or a management student, there is not enough study material in Hindi, forcing students to fall back on English. Text books for all professional courses should be made available in Hindi and other regional languages,” suggested a member.

 

The committee has also reached a consensus on developing and promoting Hindi as a link language and making it mandatory till class 6 or 7 at schools.

 

“It has been observed that in schools in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other south Indian states, Hindi is not a part of the curriculum. To develop Hindi as a link language, learning Hindi will have to become mandatory,” said another member. Currently, English is the only link language for India. The BJP government, which wants to develop Hindi as a second link language, plans to train the future generation.

The members were quick to add in a word of caution and wanted the books to be of scientific temper. “Languages should be taught scientifically and rationally. It should be promoted to command respect among readers,” said another member. Besides teaching, setting up radio stations, television channels, internet portals and newspapers in Indian languages were also discussed.

 

The committee is meeting next month to start the drafting process. “We have received suggestions from states. The drafting process will soon begin. We will try to submit the report by the end of this year,” said Professor Kapil Kumar, committee’s chairman.

 

The suggestions of the committee will be weaved into the new education policy, the draft report of which is likely to come up in December this year.

 

Source | Daily News Analysis | 31 August 2015