The Central Government has recently announced that children would soon be able to have their medium of instruction in their mother tongue. This is in fact already available in some schools run by Rashtrotthana Parishat, where children from LKG to Class II receive education in their native language, on in the language they speak and think.

This arrangement has been in place for the past three years under the department called Matrachaya. Currently, only children from LKG to Class II can benefit from this program, but there are plans to expand it to Class V in the near future.

There are many benefits to using one’s mother tongue as the medium of instruction. For example, students who learn in their mother tongue tend to have higher cognitive abilities. Additionally, many higher education courses in India, such as engineering and medicine, are taught in English. The problem is if students try to learn science-related subjects in other languages, the focus on the language can sometimes take away the focus on the science.