Himanta Biswa Sarma lauds National Education Policy for its "focus on mother tongue"

Guwahati: Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday has applauded the new national education policy 2020 for putting an emphasis on the learning of the native/mother tongue.

"Led by the vision of Hon PM Sri Narendra Modi the #NewEducationPolicy promises to bring about a paradigm shift in our learning & teaching environment, making it holistic & inclusive. I applaud the focus on the promotion of mother tongue / regional languages. Congrats Dr. R P Nishank", Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote in a tweet.

It may be recalled that in June last, the Assam government had made it mandatory for educational institutions operating in the state to teach Assamese as a subject from classes one through 10. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Governor had given assent to the bill passed by the state assembly in this regard.

On the medium of instruction in schools, the education policy, the first in 34 years, states, "Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language/regional language. Thereafter, the home/local language shall continue to be taught as a language wherever possible. This will be followed by both public and private schools."

"The three languages learned by children will be the choices of States, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India. Sanskrit will be offered as an option at all levels of school and higher education," the policy further stated.

Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had hailed the new reform as "historic". "Ensuring education & equity of every child along with a robust teacher recruitment system, the new National Education Policy 2020 is a historic reform & regulatory framework for the education sector. Kudos to PM Narendra Modi ji & the entire cabinet for this decision", the Chief Minister wrote.

The new education policy 2020 shall move education towards a more holistic and inter-disciplinary mode, with more focus being given to providing more all-round development of the students.

Meanwhile, the government has dropped the provision that stipulated Hindi as one of the languages that students should study in Grade 6 after protests from political parties, mainly in Tamil Nadu, who saw this as "imposition" of Hindi.

The NEP also seeks to "internationalize" the Indian education ecosystem by bringing it in close proximity with the international institutions.

As per the policy, 11 foreign universities shall be invited to operate in India, and a new law shall be set up in this regard. These foreign institutions shall be given "special dispensation" regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms.

In the next phase of education in India the school education system is to be shifted to a 5+3+3+4 format. The first five years of the school will comprise of the foundation stage including three years of pre-primary school and classes 1 and class 2. The next three years will be divided into a preparatory stage from classes 3 to 5. Later three years of middle stage (classes 6 to 8), and four years of secondary stage (classes 9 to 12). Schools will not have any rigid formation of streams of arts, commerce, science.

In another major development, the MPhil shall be discontinued and all the courses at the ug, pg, and PhD levels shall be inter-disciplinary. The graduation courses under the new policy will last for 4 years.

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