What do surveys say?
India’s school system faces challenges in basic literacy
National Achievement Survey (NAS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys shows poor performance in reading, writing, and grammar, particularly in rural areas.
NAS and Annual State of Education Report (ASER) highlight that a significant percentage of students struggle with reading and writing even in their regional language and Hindi.
No data is available on third-language proficiency, making it hard to assess the impact of the NEP 2020’s push for a third language in schools.
What does research say?
Research suggests that learning a third language (L3) can overwhelm students already struggling with their first two languages
Learning L3 can cause cognitive overload and reduced learning efficiency.
Learning multiple languages might lead to mixed-up grammar and vocabulary, with one language dominating over the others.
The NEP 2020’s rigid trilingual policy doesn’t account for language similarities and differences, which affect how easily students learn a third language.
Implementation challenges
Adding a third language in public schools would require significant resources for teacher recruitment, training, and infrastructure, which is especially challenging in rural areas.
The language choice is less flexible, and schools may end up teaching Hindi or Sanskrit due to practical constraints.
A policy stuck in the past
NEP 2020 overlooks the potential of AI-powered translation tools, which could reduce the need for compulsory multilingual education
The policy fails to recognize the importance of English in global education and job markets, focusing more on Sanskrit, which has limited practical use in comparison.
Lessons from Singapore
Singapore’s bilingual education system focuses on English and the mother tongue, fostering social cohesion and economic success.
Singapore’s model shows that a practical language policy can drive economic growth, unlike the rigid trilingual policy proposed in NEP 2020.
Why Hindi won’t work as a unifier
The push for Hindi as a national lingua franca is flawed due to the linguistic diversity of India.
Only 25% of Indians speak Hindi as their primary language, and many regions have no interest in learning it.
The imposition of a single language for national unity is an outdated European model and doesn’t fit India’s linguistically diverse society.
Evidence over ideology
NEP 2020’s three-language policy reflects ideological preferences rather than evidence-based reasoning.
Many regions in India, like Tamil Nadu, have prospered with a two-language policy emphasizing English and regional languages.
India should adopt a pragmatic approach, focusing on English for global competitiveness and regional languages for cultural preservation
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