What does NEP, 2020 state about languages? | Explained

The story so far: Tamil Nadu’s resistance to adopting the three-language policy as mandated under the National Education Policy has brought the age-old language debate back under the limelight. Formed after five years of consultations, NEP, 2020 which replaces the previous education policy of 1986 has stated that wherever possible, the medium of instruction, for students in both public and private schools, until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be in the home language or the mother tongue or the local language or the regional language. Experts who penned the NEP, 2020, led by former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K. Kasturirangan, suggested that young children learn and grasp non-trivial concepts more quickly in their home language or mother tongue. The NEP 2020 document states, “Research clearly shows that children pick up languages extremely quickly between the ages of two and eight and that multilingualism has great cognitive benefits to young students, children will be exposed to different languages early on, starting from the Foundational Stage onwards.” To that end adopting bilingualism is encouraged in the NEP. The current three-language formula proposed by NEP 2020 has considerably departed from the previously enunciated policy in 1968 which emphasised study of Hindi, English and a modern Indian language in Hindi-speaking States and Hindi, English and a regional language in non-Hindi speaking States.