Multilingual Education and India

Happy International Mother Language Day 2026! There is lots to celebrate on this day, as many good things are happening. Yes, we realize that there are many challenges too, but on a day like this, let's look at some of the things that are happening in the different states and organizations! On the occasion of International Mother Language Day 2026, it is worth pausing to look at what is actually unfolding in India around multilingual education (MLE). This year’s theme from UNESCO, “Youth voices on multilingual education,” resonates strongly with ongoing conversations and developments in India shaped by NEP 2020 (National Education Policy) and the National Curriculum Framework. At the same time, recent evidence provides both encouragement and caution. UNESCO’s State of the Education Report for India 2025 (SOER) underscores that Mother Tongue–Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) is foundational for inclusion and improved learning outcomes. However, the Teaching Learning Practices S...

It's always good to see that around World Literacy Day extra articles are coming out to promote the value of literacy, and occasionally people will mention the value of the local languages. We have made a selection of some of the relevant ones related to the production of books.  On the 8th of September, International Literacy Day is observed across countries. But what special meaning could literacy hold for multilingual education in India? We will focus on a few efforts that show true literacy is not just about statistics, but about ensuring people can read, learn, and think in their own mother tongues. The creation of books and learning resources in local languages plays a vital role in this process, helping bridge the gap between literacy and inclusion. Let us look at three recent stories that highlight how such initiatives are strengthening multilingual education. Finally, we will take a quick glance at a few highlights of International Literacy Day from India and UNESCO. 1. ...

Jharkhand is a state full of tribal communities and therefore has a rich palette of languages. The state government is implementing the National Curriculum Framework  and has launched the PALASH Multilingual Education Program which aims at enhancing learning outcomes in all subjects by integrating children's first languages in primary education.  Good to note that they are consulting with Language Learning Foundation, UNICEF and other agencies. It will be interesting to watch where it will land in the spectrum between the "pedagogically ideal" and the "political feasible" when it comes to implementation.  The PALASH Multilingual Education Program launched by Jharkhand aims to improve access to education for tribal children by integrating mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE). Tribal children often face educational challenges due to the gap between their home language and Hindi, the medium of instruction in most schools. The PALASH program address...

In my report on the Multilingual Education Conference in Bangkok in 2019, I mentioned a presentation from Anjela Taneja from Oxfam. I was very glad to note that Anjela has now taken the time to turn her findings into a paper so that we can all benefit from it. Upasana Lepcha has written below a helpful summary of the paper. Oxfam India has released a comprehensive paper on Multilingual Education (MLE) The Right to Mother Tongue-Based Education in Tribal India: A Comparative Perspective by Anjela Taneja. The paper  examines already existing Mother-Tongue-Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programmes in India for tribal populations. It brings to light the gaps and challenges facing MTB-MLE and makes recommendations on how to overcome them. The first part of the paper addresses the severe underuse of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in India and how this is especially crippling for the tribal children. Although tribals  constitute 8.6 percent of the total popul...

The National Education Policy (NEP) completed two years last month. This is a good reason to ask what the NEP 2020 has meant for multilingual education in India. There has been significant talk about introducing or strengthening  Multilingual Education in various state-level primary schools, but has there been action? The NEP 2020  has brought multilingual education higher on the agenda in India.  As an indicator, I did a quick research in Google and compared the Google hits in the  two years after NEP(2020-22) and two years prior(2018-20). I got 6500 hits since June 2020 when I searched for "Multilingual education" in India, while the two years before that had less than half of that.  The extra attention has caused a wider group of people to be thinking of the issues related to multilingual education. The home minister, for example, recently stated that, when we do not use Indian languages to teach, we are not able to utilise the full potential of the country. ...