Central Board of Secondary Education, CBSE released a new circular about “Multilingual Education and Using Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction”. In this article, we explain all details regarding this CBSE New Circular. All the teachers and students of CBSE School are advised to read this complete article for all the important information about Multilingual Education and using Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction.
Multilingual Education and Using Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction
Multilingual education is widely recognized as a valuable approach to fostering linguistic diversity, cultural understanding, and academic success among students. The National Education Policy 2020, in paragraph 4.12, emphasizes the important cognitive benefits of multilingualism for young learners, especially when they are exposed to multiple languages from a foundational level, with a special focus on their mother tongue.
The policy strongly advocates the use of home language, mother tongue, local language, or regional language as the medium of instruction whenever possible, at least till grade 5, but preferably extending till grade 8 and beyond.
Implementation of Multilingual Education and Using Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction
The implementation of Multilingual Education and Using the Mother Tongue as a Medium of Instruction involves a number of challenges, including the availability of skilled teachers capable of teaching in multilingual education settings, the creation of high-quality multilingual education textbooks, and the limited time available, especially in two-shift government schools, as multilingual education demands additional instructional time allocation.
In view of all the above-given challenges, the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India (GoI) has taken several measures to make education through Indian languages a reality at the grassroots level.
One of the major steps taken now about Multilingual Education is the direction by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to NCERT to prepare new textbooks through the 22 scheduled Indian languages. NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) has taken up this serious task as a top priority so that textbooks in 22 scheduled languages are made available to all students from the next session.
What is the Importance of Teaching using Mother Tongue?
Higher education has also started preparations to prepare textbooks in Indian languages and start the teaching-learning process through Indian language mediums in addition to English mediums and conduct examinations through Indian languages. New Textbooks of Multilingual Education on technical education, medical education, vocational education, skill education, law education, etc. are now coming in Indian languages.
Since higher education in CBSE-affiliated Schools has started to fulfill this need, school education has to be its foundation. There should be a continuum in the approach toward the medium of instruction from school education to higher education. Therefore, CBSE-affiliated schools need to play a vital role in this noble endeavor by imparting education through the medium of Indian languages.
Keeping in view the above initiatives taken to facilitate education through Indian languages, schools affiliated with CBSE may consider using Indian languages mentioned in Schedule 8 of the Constitution of India as a medium of instruction from the foundational stage till the end of the secondary stage i.e. from pre-primary classes to class XII as an alternative medium in addition to other existing options. Schools affiliated with the CBSE board can explore available resources, consult experts in the field and collaborate with other schools to share best practices to make multilingual education a reality in CBSE schools.
Click Here to View Official Notification about Mother Tongue Education.
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