Teaching in mother tongue: CBSE is the largest national school board with more than 30,000 schools affiliated to it. According to a report, CBSE’s circular states that education from pre-primary to class 5 should be in the child’s home language, mother tongue or a familiar regional language. This language should ideally be the mother tongue
Teaching in mother tongue: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued a notification indicating that teaching in mother tongue will be made compulsory at the primary level in future. CBSE has instructed all the concerned schools to identify the mother tongue of the students as soon as possible (language mapping). Also, prepare the educational material accordingly before the end of summer vacations. Let us tell you that at present, studies are done in English language only in CBSE schools across the country. Because of this, not much attention is given to the mother tongue. But now after the new notification, changes can be seen.
CBSE is the largest national school board, with more than 30,000 schools associated with it. According to the Indian Express, the CBSE circular states that from pre-primary to class 2, education should be in the child’s home language, mother tongue or a familiar regional language. This language should ideally be the mother tongue. The notification states that if this is not possible, it can be the language of the state.
CBSE has instructed all its schools across the country to find out the mother tongue of the students as soon as possible. After this, prepare the study material in that language before the end of summer vacation. A board official said that this step will not only make education easier for children, but will also strengthen Indian languages and culture.
The notification issued on May 22 said that for classes 3 to 5, students can continue learning in R1 (mother tongue/familiar regional language). Or they may be given the option to study in a medium other than R1. The notification said that teaching in mother tongue “may start from July.”
CBSE believes that learning should begin in the language in which the child thinks and feels comfortable. The official said that ideally this language should be his mother tongue, but if for some reason this is not possible, then the language of that state can also be chosen. However, the condition is that it should be familiar and easy to understand for the child.
This is the first time that CBSE has indicated that it may make mother tongue-based teaching compulsory in its schools. Both NEP 2020 and NCFSE 2023 recommend the use of mother tongue in elementary education till the age of 8 years. A CBSE official said students of classes 1 and 2 primarily study two languages and mathematics. He said the notification means that mathematics education in these classes can now be imparted in the mother tongue or a familiar regional language.
The notification said the focus is on introducing students to two spoken languages R1 and R2 (a language other than R1) at this level. A senior education ministry official said NCERT books for classes 1 and 2 are already available in 22 Indian languages. Books for higher classes are being translated.
The notification has asked all schools to form an ‘NCF implementation committee’ by the end of May. “By the end of the summer holidays, schools should redesign the syllabus and teaching material to use R1 as the MoI (medium of instruction), and ensure a structured introduction of R2 at the appropriate stage. Teacher orientation and training workshops should also be completed before implementation begins, focusing on multilingual teaching, classroom strategies, and language-sensitive assessment,” the circular states.
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