'Learning in mother tongue will help kids grasp better, stay rooted'

NEW DELHI: How will students adapt to their mother tongue being the medium of instruction in schools till Class 5? This question has been reverberating in the virtual school and parent groups ever since the National Educational Policy (

NEP

) has been approved by the Cabinet in July 2020.


Addressing the concern, Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank at a panel discussion on the NEP, organised as part of the Keep Learning programme, an initiative of The

Times of India

, powered by BYJU’s, said a study of the synergistic effect — language acquisition, cultural understanding and scholastic ability — and scientific reasoning has led to the mother tongue being proposed as the medium of instruction for primary classes.

World over, mother tongue as instructional medium

“The prelude of the mother tongue will bring the school closer to home. Hence, with instructions given in the mother tongue, a primary school student will be able to express freely, creatively and vociferously,” Pokhriyal said.

About the concern among parents on how kids will be globally competitive, he said, “The world has embraced the use of local languages while imparting education. Even the UNESCO proposes that countries should revive the local languages among the millennials. So, while nothing is being imposed, the educators need to explore and embrace the transformation with an open mind.”

Taking examples of countries using the mother tongue as the instructional medium, Pokhriyal said, “Japan, Germany and many others provide education in their local languages and in no way are their students lagging behind.”
No more report cards

Discarding the score-based report card system, Pokhriyal said ‘progress cards’ will be introduced. “It will consider a 360-degree check, carrying assessments by kids themselves, peers, teachers and parents in a collaborative way,” he said.
Experts on mother tongue
During the early development process, the brain adapts to the mother tongue at a time when it is storing emotional and visual information. Hence, it helps in the ease of expression, development of personal, social and cultural identity, said Dr Sameer Malhotra, psychiatrist.

Corroborating Dr Malhotra, psychologist

Anubha Doshi

, said, “while science proves kids should be exposed to multiple languages, schools are anyway doing so with English being the main instructional medium and language options also existing alongside. So why change the instructional medium when kids are anyway multi-lingual?”