Parliament Question: Teaching and Learning in Indian Languages in Schools

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3922 ANSWERED ON 18.08.2025 Teaching and Learning in Indian Languages in Schools †3922. Dr. Sambit Patra:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has formulated any guidelines to promote teaching and learning in Indian languages in school education and higher education and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has formulated any long-term plans to prepare textbooks to promote teaching and learning in Indian languages and if so, the details thereof; and

(c) whether the Government has formulated any action plan for teacher training programme to promote teaching and learning in Indian languages in the Indian education system and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (c) National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 (Para 4.11, 4.12, 4.13, and 4.14) provides for multilingualism and the same is the guiding force in the development of the textbooks. One of the fundamental principles of NEP, 2020 that will guide both the education system at large, as well as the individual institutions, is promoting multilingualism and the power of language in teaching and learning. Further NEP, 2020 (Para 4.32) emphasizes on the availability of textbooks in all regional languages.

As a follow up of NEP, 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023 following initiatives have been taken in the area of School Education to promote Indian languages- i. Textbooks of NCERT viz. Science, Mathematics, Social Science, Art Education, Environmental Education, Health and Well-being, etc. developed have been translatedinto 22 Indian language and in English and are available for use by states and all school systems. These books can be accessed at https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php ii. NCERT undertakes training and professional development programmes for teachers, teacher educators and other educational personnel on regular basis. All aspects of school education content enrichment, pedagogical knowledge and practices, social- emotional skills, vocational skills, health education and well-being, leadership are included in the training. NCERT conducts a special training programme for teachers from national level school systems and teachers in the states known as NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) and this programme covers teachers from states also. Language education and language pedagogy and teaching learning of Indian languages is one of the major focuses of the programme.

iii. Guidelines and advocacy materials for Foundational Stage have been developed and disseminated to states and other national and state level agencies involved in school education. The materials are available on https://ncert.nic.in/ NCERT website.

iv. Development of Primers in all Indian languages: Primer is the first book for learners and for anyone in the language to learn and get familiarised with the language through visual, text form and to notice and use language in contexts. Primers are available on NCERT and Ministry of Education Website. https://ncert.nic.in/primers.php Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru and NCERT have jointly developed Primers in all 117 mother tongues listed in the Census of India. The Primers are aimed at documenting and teaching the languages in school.

v. Bhasha Sangam under Ek Bharat and Shrestha Bharat: Government of India initiated a nationwide programme to promote all Indian language through the programme of Bhasha Sangam. Children in school learn 100 sentences in the 22 scheduled languages with audio and video support. The progarmme has been in implementation last seven years and 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 vi. Multilingual Jadui Pitara: Jaadui Pitara has been developed as an exemplar of content needed in any school for the Foundational Stage. It represents a wide range of useful content and demonstrates the sensibilities (age-appropriate, sensory experience and local) to be kept in mind while developing such content. The Pitara has toys, games, puzzles, puppets, posters, flashcards, story cards, story books, playbooks for students,and teacher handbooks. The core transformative aspect of NCFFS is ‘learn through play’. The NCF-FS describes how children at this stage learn best through play – through activity and doing. Children enjoy learning in several ways - talking, listening, using toys, working with material, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, running, and jumping. Jaadui Pitara is available in 22 Indian languages and also on NCERT website

https://diksha.gov.in/jadoo/explore.html Jaadui Pitara has also been converted into digital form and available in 22 languages on

https://ejaaduipitara.ncert.gov.in/explorejaadu.html vii. Bhartiya Bhasha Utsav: Government of Indian has directed all educational institutions and schools to celebrate Great Tamil poet, Subramania Bhartathi’s birthday as Bhartiya Bhasha Utsav in December every year with lots of activities. Schools, teacher education and other educational institutions are celebrating Indian language through various cultural, ethnic and social and academic activities. December 11 is the final day of the Utsav in which schools and other institutions are showcasing their Indian languages activities in their schools.

viii. The Bharatiya Bhasha Summer Camp (BBSC) 2025, launched on 19th May 2025, aims to encourage students to learn one more Indian language of their choice. It seeks to promote multilingualism among school students in a joyful and engaging way, enabling them to experience the linguistic and cultural unity of Indian languages. The camp helps students acquire basic conversational skills in an Indian language other than their mother tongue and fosters mutual respect, cultural appreciation, and national integration through language learning. As on 13th August 2025, BBSC has recorded a total participation of 5.26 crore across themes from 27 States/Union Territories

(UTs)/Autonomous Bodies, with the language basket comprising 74 languages, including 22 scheduled languages.

As per recommendations of NEP 2020, University Grants Commission (UGC) in collaboration with Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti (BBS) has conceptualized a project 'ASMITA' to promote a culture of academic writing and translation of textbooks in Higher Education. Under this project, 23 nodal universities were identified with their nominated member universities from their respective states for identifying authors for writing/preparing original text-books in 22 Bharatiya Bhasha for Undergraduate (UG) level courses. Till date, 759 books have been proposed by the Nodal Universities and more than 1089 potential authors have been identified for writing/translation of text-books in 22 Bharatiya Bhasha for Undergraduate (UG) levelcourses. The projected plan is to produce 1000 textbooks each in 22 languages, altogether 22,000 books.

A comprehensive Digital Dashboard has also been developed with extensive features for data management and coordination of the project. The Dashboard has been designed to provide real time status about the book writing process. It has log-in facilities for all the stakeholders.

Further, since Education is a subject under the Concurrent List of the Constitution, the respective State and Union Territory (UT) Governments may decide on the modalities for promotion of multilingualism, in accordance with the spirit and recommendations of the NEP, 2020, keeping in view local needs, linguistic diversity, and implementation feasibility.

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