NEP 2020 and the Three-Language Policy: Impact, Challenges & Future

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 pursues a complete educational language approach while reimagining the Indian educational structure. According to this policy all educational institutions should adopt multilingualism by teaching through their students' mother tongue or local language during initial educational stages. The three-language formula faces substantial implementation barriers as one of the major obstacles of NEP 2020.

Key Highlights of New Education Policy 2020: 

The main characteristics of NEP 2020 regarding language education include using native languages and local languages as instructional tools.

Medium of Instruction

• NEP 2020 establishes that home language and mother tongue together with regional languages should act as the main instructional tools from Grade 5 onward to at least Grade 8.

• Bilingual education that combines native languages with English receives encouragement as a strategy to improve educational results.

• Research in NEP documents shows children learn ideas best through their native language.

What is the Three-Language Formula?

• The Three-Language Formula provides support for linguistic diversity through its implementation approach for maintaining national unity.

• According to NEP 2020 the government will not enforce any language education upon any State or location.

• The new policy enhances incentives for the promotion of Sanskrit as well as Tamil Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia along with other classical languages.

Implementation Challenges

• Declining Trend: Research through the All India School Education Survey (AISES) detected that schools progressively switch away from using the students' native language for teaching.

• Rural vs Urban: A larger proportion of rural educational institutions choose mother-tongue-based education classes instead of urban schools.

• Different Preference of States: The government of Tamil Nadu keeps fighting against the three-language policy since they prefer dual-language education over the existing norm.

• Lack of trained educators: The lack of trained educators handling regional and classical languages becomes a barrier to successful program execution.

Role of Digital and Bilingual Resources

• Under NEP 2020 the educational board supports digital educational resources in mother tongue languages for improved learning access.

• NCERT has developed educational content in 104 different regional languages and dialects to establish mother-tongue-based learning programs.

Foreign Languages in NEP 2020

• Secondary students in schools have the choice between the foreign language options of Korean, Japanese, French, German and Spanish for their studies.

• Students need to learn two Indian languages during their first ten years of school but they get flexibility later to pick a foreign language.

Critical Analysis

• Strengths

  • Early learning of the mother tongue helps develop cognitive capabilities of children during formative years.

  • NEP 2020 adopts a policy to acknowledge diverse languages throughout India while embracing multiple linguistic skills.

  • The system provides adaptable language policies because it gives authority to states to create their own choices.

  • Focuses on technological integration with digital resources in regional languages.

• Challenges

  • A strong opposition against the three-language formula exists in Tamil Nadu as its residents fear Hindi language enforcement.

  • AISES survey data shows that the number of students enrolled in mother tongue education has decreased across the education system.

  • Infrastructure and manpower issues: Shortage of qualified teachers for classical and regional languages.

  • Unequal Implementation: The language policy adoption differs between States as certain states succeed in having bilingual books yet other states face difficulties with integrating the policy.

Way Forward

• The government should prioritize investing money into training programs that teach teachers regional and classical languages.

• The language policy must be applied equitably to urban schools at equal strength to that of rural schools.

• Education institutions should use technology to develop digital learning tools which support multilingual education delivery.

• State governments should receive flexibility to modify the three-language approach as long as national unity remains preserved.

Conclusion

The language policy within NEP 2020 functions to develop an education system which offers balanced and inclusive and multilingual learning. The strategy needs continuous improvement in addition to proficient teachers who can implement this approach and avoidance of opposition from different regions. Success of this policy demands a detailed approach which both recognizes different languages while maintaining educational standards.