Making headway in narrowing down Maharashtra’s three-language policy, the Narendra Jadhav Committee has released a questionnaire for schools, educationists, parents, and students, among others, to gather public opinion on the state’s language education policy. With a total of eight questions and a space for public input, the questionnaire seeks to obtain public opinion on finalising the apt academic age of those between Std I, III, V, and VI for implementing the trilingual policy.
Touching upon the points of recent debate, the questionnaire tries to ascertain the right language for letter recognition for pre-primary students, the right grades to introduce Marathi and Hindi, the possibility of introducing any other Indian languages and even foreign tongues — all with the help of popular opinion.
“The trilingual policy met with a public pushback, so taking public opinion into consideration is only right,” said Mahendra Ganpule, former head of Maharashtra School Principals Association. “As we previously clarified, our position as educators is to limit a child’s education to English and their mother tongue at least up to Std V. After that, a student is free to choose the third language of their own accord,” Ganpule added.
Futuristic vision
Apart from the three languages, the public has also been asked to weigh in on the inclusion of computer languages such as Python in the curriculum of English-medium schools to pave the way for learning fundamentals of artificial intelligence, data analytics, blockchain technology, machine learning, Internet of Things, robotics, additive manufacturing, etc, at an early stage.
“Today’s generation is the one that picks up new subjects quickly. Just like we introduced computers as a mandate, coding languages are the next step since it’s what the future calls for. All students don’t need to be good at it, but exposure to these languages is crucial,” explained a Dadar school principal.
The committee led by Dr Jadhav will tour various cities across the state, such as Sambhajinagar, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, and Mumbai in the last week of November to gauge popular opinion on the issue. Apart from the questionnaire, the committee is also to look into the implementation of the trilingual formula in other states and submit a report on its findings by December 5.
