Multilingual Education and India

Learning new things from a webinar can be quite enriching. Presenting at a webinar is even a richer experience: Recently I helped design and execute a webinar for the Early Learning Network of India (ELNI) hosted by Tata Trust. Good to talk about the reasons for and the principles for using the local languages in the classroom! The Early Learning Network of India (ELNI) invited education specialists to provide a global perspective in integrating local languages into early education for a webinar. The ELNI, supported by Tata Trusts, regularly hosts webinars focused on early literacy and the use of local languages in classrooms. These sessions bring together educators, researchers, and policymakers to share international and national insights on multilingual education. The ELNI is led by Dr. Shailaja Menon, and promotes early literacy through teacher development and multilingual, research-informed practices in collaboration with institutions and NGOs. During this presentation the topics ...

Good to see that the Rajasthan government is taking concrete steps to bring the local languages into the classroom. It is particularly encouraging to note that this initiative is not only focusing on the language, but also including the culture and folklore. Still, the initiative is not fully in line with the National Education Policy and the common pedagogical consensus that the local language should be the language of instruction as the medium of instruction will remain Hindi. Nevertheless it is clearly a step in the right direction! According to news reports, the Rajasthan State Council of Educational Research and Training (RSCERT) has identified 18 dialects that will be integrated into classroom teaching for classes I to V in state schools in the 2024-25 academic year. The main aim is to reduce the gap between the home and school environments for students.( Education Times / Times of India ) Before this initiative a language mapping survey by RSCERT showed that 20% of teachers wer...