New Delhi: Contrary to Home Minister Amit Shah pitching for Hindi as the common national language, the draft National Education Policy shared with the states on Saturday proposes the same old 3-language formula that was adopted in the national policy in 1968. It's the same formula of teaching three languages at school level – Hindi, English and one modern Indian language, mostly understood to be the regional language of the concerned state. This allays fears of some southern states over imposition of Hindi on the students.
There is, however, a policy shift in the draft NEP. First, it recommends home language/mother tongue as the medium of instruction at least until Class V, but preferably up to Class VIII. A bilingual approach has been proposed for those whose home language is different from the medium of instruction to ensure smooth transition from the home language to the medium of instruction, particularly for those opting for Science stream. The draft policy envisages teaching of science bilingually in English and the regional language as it was noted that those coming from the latter stream found difficulty to grapple with higher education teaching in science, medical and engineering mostly in English.
The draft policy was discussed here in the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education attended by all state education ministers and they have been asked to send written responses soon on all the nuances of the policy. Tamil Nadu is bound to resist the draft NEP's 3-language formula as then DMK government had even in 1968 done away with it by ruling to teach only two languages in schools – English and Tamil. It will oppose any attempt to make Hindi as compulsory language.
