National Education Policy : Mandatory use of Mother Tongue in Schools
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY
LOK SABHA
STARRED QUESTION NO – 107
ANSWERED ON – 08/12/2025
Mandatory use of Mother Tongue in Schools
107. Shri Mahendra Singh Solanky: Shri Jugal Kishore:
Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:
(a) the manner in which the Government is ensuring that rural, tribal, inaccessible hilly and remote forest areas in the country including Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and particularly Palghar District in Maharashtra receive adequate central support to integrate three years of pre-primary education into the new Foundational Stage;
(b) the strategy adopted by the Government to make mandatory/compulsory use of the mother tongue/local/regional languages as the medium of instruction till Class-5 in the country particularly Maithili in Mithila region;
(c) the manner in which mandatory/compulsory use of the mother tongue/local/regional language is likely to balance with the need for multi-lingual proficiency in the middle and secondary levels;
(d) whether the Government has finalised the mechanism for the new Board Examinations which are to be conducted twice a year; and
(e) if so, the details of provisions made to reduce student stress while maintaining academic standards in the country particularly in Dewas-Shajapur, Lok Sabha Constituency in Madhya Pradesh?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF EDUCATION
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a) to (e) A statement is laid on the table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 107 ANSWERED ON 08.12.2025 ASKED BY HON’BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT SHRI MAHENDRA SINGH SOLANKY AND SHRI JUGAL KISHORE REGARDING “MANDATORY USE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN SCHOOLS”
(a) In the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, for the first time, 3 years of pre-schools (Balvatika) is recognized as a continuum of education in the 5+3+3+4 structure where the foundational stage is 3 years of pre-school and grade 1 & grade 2. The Department of School Education (DoSE&L), Ministry of Education (MoE) through the schemes/programmes/initiatives has ensured that the States & Union Territories (UTs), including Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra (including Palghar district) receive adequate central support to integrate three years of pre-primary education into the new Foundational Stage (FS). As envisaged in NEP 2020, to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by end of Grade 2, a national mission called NIPUN Bharat Mission has been launched.
NIPUN Bharat Mission: A flagship national mission called “National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)” was launched on 5th July, 2021 for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains FLN by the end of Grade 2. This Mission has been set up under the aegis of the Samagra Shiksha. All 36 States/Union Territories are implementing NIPUN-Bharat Mission (NBM). Financial norms for the following components are provided under the NBM:
- Support to pre-school education/co-located anganwadi centers (recurring & non- recurring)
- Teaching Learning Materials for implementation of Innovative pedagogies
- Teacher Resource Material/Activity Handbook
- Capacity building of Teachers of Grades I & II
- Independent, periodic and holistic assessment of students
- Formation of Project Management Unit (PMU) at state and district level
In order to integrate the pre-school (Balvatika) in the foundational stage, following progress has been made:
- NCF-FS: National Curricular Framework for Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) was released on 20th October, 2022 providing a structure for the syllabus, training of teachers, Learning Teaching Material (LTM), etc. It is the first ever integrated curriculum framework for children between ages 3-8 in India.
- Vidya Pravesh: A 3 months play based ‘School Preparation Module and Guidelines’ for Grade I named ‘Vidya Pravesh’ was launched on 29th July, 2021. The goal of Vidya Pravesh programme is to promote school preparedness in all children coming to Grade- I from diverse backgrounds (Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), at home, private play schools etc.), to ensure a smooth transition of children to Grade-I. This programme is implemented across the country including Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
The number of beneficiary students from the Vidya Pravesh module is tabulated below:
| State | Students benefitted | ||
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 1,34,249 | 1,30,640 | 1,19,160 |
| Jharkhand | 13,00,000 | 5,52,263 | 5,70,745 |
| Chhattisgarh | 2,59,165 | 3,19,918 | 2,98,632 |
| Maharashtra | 13,84,131 | 11,03,339 | 10,78,720 |
| India (all States & UTs) | 1,80,13,930 | 1,13,60,923 | 1,29,06,518 |
Co-location of Anganwadi Centers (AWCs): As envisaged in NEP 2020, one of the models to ensure universal access to high quality Early Childhood Care & Education consists of Anganwadis co-located schools having Grade 1. In this regard, the DoSE&L, Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Women & Child Development has launched the “Guidelines for Co-location of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) with Schools” on 3rd September, 2025. As per UDISE+ 2024-25, there are 2,99,546 co-located AWCs in schools having Grade-I. State-wise details are available at blob:https://udiseplus.gov.in/709af9f3-e9b0-47c0-ab8f-5345bed073ce (Table 3.7).
The students of Balvatika are also included under PM-POSHAN.
(b) & (c) Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution of India and majority of the schools are under the domain of the State Government & UT administration. As per para 4.13 of the NEP 2020, “The three-language formula will continue to be implemented while keeping in mind the Constitutional provisions, aspirations of the people, regions, and the Union, and the need to promote multilingualism as well as promote national unity. However, there will be a greater flexibility in the three-language formula, and no language will be imposed on any State. 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. In particular, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or 7, as long as they are able to demonstrate basic proficiency in three languages (including one language of India at the literature level) by the end of secondary school.”
The policy of the Government is to promote all Indian languages. The NEP, 2020 lays a lot of stress on promoting multilingualism and making efforts to keep Indian languages vibrant. The NEP 2020 mentions that wherever possible the medium of instruction up to at least class 5 and preferably up to class 8 will be in the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language. The policy emphasize that teaching should be in their home language/local language/regional language and learning of Indian languages should be integrated with school education so that students have the option of studying in any Indian language. As a follow-up of NEP, 2020, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023 was launched in July 2023 and the following initiatives have been taken in the area of school education to promote Indian languages:
(i) NCERT has developed and published textbooks in 22 scheduled languages including Maithili language for Grades 1 to 3 and 6. The textbooks are available at NCERT’s website https://ncert.nic.in.
(ii) The Jaadui Pitara (JP), a set of 53 play-based learning-teaching materials for ages 3-8 was launched on 20th February 2023. Available in 22 Indian languages (including Maithili) and English, JP includes toys, puzzles, story cards, flashcards, and teacher handbooks. Its digital extension, the e-Jaadui Pitara, launched on 10th February 2024, offers multilingual stories, activities, songs in 22 Indian languages (including Maithili), and AI-based bots-Katha Sakhi, Teacher Tara, and Parent Tara-to support children, teachers, and parents. As envisaged in NEP 2020, these initiatives are an integral part of the foundational stage.
(iii) Primers (launched in March, 2024) have been developed in 121 local languages (including Maithili) for FLN in mother tongues spoken by populations of at least 10,000. Primers are available at https://ncert.nic.in/primers.php?ln=en.
(iv) The Ministry of Education initiated a nationwide programme to promote all Indian languages through the programme of Bhasha Sangam. Children in school learn 100 sentences in the 22 scheduled languages (including Maithili) with audio and video support. Schools across the country are participating and learning the Indian languages. Both textual and audio- video materials are available on DIKSHA portal at https://ncert.nic.in/bs-2021.php.
(v) The Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya provides quality books to children and adolescents, ensuring accessibility across diverse geographies, languages, genres, and educational levels.
The platform offers 5,000+ non-academic books in 23 languages making a wide range of resources available to users.
(vi) The PM e-Vidya initiative has expanded to 200 DTH TV channels with vision of “One Nation, One Digital Platform”, delivering curriculum-aligned content in various 128 Indian languages and 7 foreign languages, enhancing reach and inclusivity of rural area.
(vii) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has prescribed using child’s home language, mother tongue or a familiar regional language including Maithili, as a medium of instruction at the foundational stage and also at the preparatory stage. The notification dated 22.05.2025 is available at
https://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/Circulars/2025/30_Circular_2025.pdf
(d) & (e) CBSE has notified two Board Examinations in Class X from 2026 and its mechanism vide its notification dated 25.06.2025. The notification is available at https://www.cbse.gov.in/cbsenew/documents/Notification_Two_Board_Examinations_Class
_X_2026_25062025.pdf. The main responsibility of CBSE is to register candidates in Classes IX and XI and to conduct the annual Class X and XII examinations for its affiliated schools. In addition, CBSE undertakes reforms in examination and evaluation practices to equip students to meet present and future challenges. The recent reforms, including conducting board examinations twice a year, are aligned with the NEP 2020, which aims to reduce high-stakes exam pressure and promote flexibility and competency-based learning over rote memorization.
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