New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked schools under it to consider using regional languages, including Malayalam, as the medium of instruction from the foundation stage to secondary-level classes.
Only English and Hindi languages were permitted until now. As per the decision regional languages would be permitted as the optional medium. The circular in this regard was issued by Dr Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics).
"In view of the initiatives taken to facilitate education through Indian languages, the CBSE affiliated schools may consider using Indian languages, as enumerated in the Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution, as the medium of instruction from foundational stage till end of secondary stage (from pre-primary classes till class 12) as an optional medium in addition to other existing options," Joseph Emmanuel said in a letter to schools.
"Schools may explore the available resources, consult with experts in the field, and collaborate with other schools to share best practices to make multilingual education in CBSE schools a reality," he added.
The Board has directed institutions affiliated to it to explore the possibility of conducting classes in mother tongue as well to scout for personnel capable of teaching in the native languages.
The board noted the challenges posed by the implementation of multilingual education and utilization of mother tongue as a medium of instruction which include availability of skilled teachers capable of teaching multilingual subjects, the creation of high-quality multilingual textbooks and time limitation, especially in two-shift government schools.
"The NCERT has taken this serious task on highest priority so that textbooks in 22 scheduled languages can be made available to all students from next sessions, CBSE said.
The school education board went on to say that the higher education authority has also started providing education in multiple languages and is conducting exams in different languages. The textbooks in technical, medical, vocational, skill, law education, etc. are now being available in Indian languages.
The New Education Policy stipulates the use of the mother tongue as far as possible. The National Council of Education, Research, and Training (NCERT) will soon roll out textbooks in 22 languages.
(With PTI inputs)