Tirupati: Linguists laud NEP's stress on mother tongue

Tirupati: There is an overwhelming support from language lovers for the new education policy (NEP) 2020, which laid emphasis on learning in mother tongue. Though the policy document approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29 underlined that "Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably grade 8 and beyond, will be the mother tongue or the local language", educationists and language lovers have welcomed the move saying that it is a great step in the right direction.

When The Hans India spoke to those working for the Telugu language development, in one voice, they termed it as a day of great importance for the language lovers. Convenor of Chittoor District Writers Forum, Dr Sakam Nagaraja, opined that it was a proven fact across the globe that mother tongue lays strong foundation for the pupils towards their future.

Students can grasp the subject matter and express it well when they learn it in their mother tongue.

In the same breath, he said no language lover is against the English language. In fact it is a great language and everyone should learn it but not at the cost of their mother tongue, he added.

President of Telugu Bhashodyama Samithi, Gangavaram Sridevi, said the NEP 2020 had brought in a big respite for language lovers by taking note of mother tongue's role in the learning process.

Sociologists, psychologists and several others have been continuously advocating the importance of mother tongue as the medium of instruction which the state government has been ignoring all these days, she said.

"The awareness among people is also very low for which lack of language consciousness is the main reason. This leads to a belief in society that when students learn English, jobs will fall in their lap, which is not correct," Sridevi said.

District associate president of UTF (United Teachers Federation) D Nirmala said that there is only one opinion across various sections that mother tongue should be the medium of instruction and students can opt for any language of their choice from Class VI. Seen from this perspective, the proposal in NEP 2020 on the learning language is certainly a welcome step, he said.

However, he alleged that the government at the Centre has been trying to give top priority for Sanskrit and moving with this hidden agenda. "When English is there as international link language, there is no need for any other language to play that role," he stressed.