Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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‘There should be no imposition of any language nor should there be opposition to it’
Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu has underlined the importance of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in educational institutions, at least at the primary level.
He was delivering the inaugural address of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) here on Saturday. Mr. Naidu said a number of studies conducted all over the world by different expert groups had established that teaching of mother tongue at the initial stages of education gave impetus to the growth of mind and thought and made children more creative and logical. Children could learn any number of languages of their choice but promoting mother tongue and making it the medium of instruction at the primary level was a must, said the Vice-President. However, he hastened to add that promoting one language did not mean opposing another. The Vice-President said the inadequate availability of pedagogical materials and technology in several indigenous languages posed a serious challenge for the country. Since education was one of the instruments for the growth of self, society and the nation, language or languages should not become the barrier of education, said Mr. Naidu, Welcoming the new draft National Education Policy which called for implementation of the three-language formula, Mr. Naidu said children had the potential to acquire multilingual skills and these need to be encouraged. Citing reports, Mr. Naidu said over 19,500 languages or dialects were spoken in India as mother tongues and there were 121 languages which were spoken by 10,000 or more people in India. “It is extremely disheartening to learn that 196 languages of our country are classified as endangered and we may have to ensure that this number doesn’t increase and the best way protect and preserve our languages was to constantly use them,” he added.
