Multilingual Education and India

The push for the use of local languages in the National Education Policy is not only triggering good discussions among educationalists but also creating an interest in the production of more books in other languages than just English and Hindi. One could also argue that it is the other way around and that the increased interest in the society for local languages has influenced the National Education Policy, but the point is that overall more space is created for languages in the debates in the marketplace!  Discussions around the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and developments in Indian publishing point to growing interest in strengthening mother-tongue based learning. One perspective comes from Anju Wal’s article on multilingual classrooms and the challenges of implementing NEP 2020, while another comes from the strong presence of Indian language publishing at the World Book Fair 2026. Together, these examples show how policy responses and cultural platforms can support and ...

When UNESCO speaks, people listen. UNESCO does not tend to be an agency with lots of projects, but their voice comes with authority and therefore gets the attention of the media, government officials, and others. It is therefore very encouraging that the latest State of the Education Report on India has Multilingual Education as its theme. It is an extensive documentation of the main issues around Multilingual Education in India. At the event at which the report was released, important points were made with regards to the implementation of multilingual education in India. UNESCO launched the State of the Education Report for India 2025 , titled Bhasha Matters: Mother Tongue and Multilingual Education , in New Delhi on 17 December 2025, with a live stream on UNESCO India’s official YouTube channel . The report highlights the role of linguistic diversity and multilingual learning in improving access, inclusion and learning outcomes across India. It places mother tongue-based multilingual...

Language technology is getting a lot of attention these days but usually the focus is on the dominant languages.   I was pleasantly surprised that in a recent workshop organised by IIIT-Hyderabad, also the underserved languages were in focus. This is of course of interest for the multilingual education efforts in India as there is a significant shortage of support to create materials and tools for children that speak minority languages. IIIT-Hyderabad recently hosted a multi-day workshop focused on low-resource Indian languages, as noted by Prof. Sandeep K. Shukla . The institute organised Bahu Bhasa 2025 (6–8 Nov 2025), a major event that brought together technologists, linguists, community leaders and policy stakeholders to reimagine the future of Indian languages in the digital age ( Deccan Chronicle ). This mix of research and public dialogue connects language-technology efforts (Natural Language Processing – NLP, speech, language resources) to India’s broader educational goal...

It was inspiring to listen to Dr Subir Shukla at the Lead India webinar recently. Subir challenged us that we tend to spend far too much energy and time on the 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘤 dimensions of  multilingual education: developing textbooks, solving orthography issues, creating certificates, etc. We should spend more energy on the 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘤 dimensions: using the languages of the children to connect with the children, to draw them out, to let them engage. That makes more difference in the learning results than getting the curriculum in the "right" languages. If that is the case, we might need to change the narrative around what MLE is about . Let us explore what Subhir had to say! At the September 2025 LEAD Community of Practice meeting, Dr. Subir Shukla challenged a persistent misconception about Multilingual Education (MLE): that MLE is seen as a project but should be more than a project or program — a part of the education system as a whole. While acknowledging the t...

It is quite rare to get a broad snapshot on what is happening in a country with regards to Multilingual Education. I therefore thoroughly enjoyed participating in the recent webinar organized by the National Consortium on Multilingual Education in India (NCMLEI) about an MLE landscaping study that Tata Trusts did in India. In this blog, you can read a few insights, and I strongly recommend watching the whole webinar ! The NCMLEI #6 webinar presented by Akhila Pydah & Dr. Shailaja Menon showcased insights from a nationwide landscaping study on Multilingual Education (MLE)  by Tata Trusts between February and April 2025. This study drew from expert consultations, organisational interviews, field visits across four states, and extensive desk research, the study provided a systematic mapping of MLE efforts across India.  Key Findings Finding 1: Lack of a unified understanding of MLE- India lacks a clear, shared understanding of multilingual education (MLE). Literature define...