Our Language Our Selves
Context:
- In November 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 to be International Mother Language Day in reaction to the global demise of various languages.
- The theme for this year, “Multilingual education: a requirement to transform education,” emphasises the importance of using multiple languages in creating an efficient educational system.
- According to UNESCO, learning performance may be negatively impacted by a monolingual educational system that places a strong emphasis on “providing education in only one language that is not necessarily shared by all learners may impact negatively learning performance, and the development of socioemotional and foundational literacy skills.”
India is a nation with a strong cultural heritage:
- India is a long-established country with a great diversity of languages and cultures, including thousands of dialects and hundreds of different languages.
- We honestly convey our deepest feelings, ideas, aspirations, and literary endeavours in our home tongue.
- Our languages, which were a vital part of our prehistoric civilization, give us a sense of ourselves. The value of a person’s mother tongue was emphasised by Koichiro Matsura, a former director-general of UNESCO, who said, “The languages we acquire from our moms are the birthplace of our innermost ideals.”
- The International Mother Language Day has special relevance in India, since 42 of our languages and dialects have fewer than 10,000 speakers due to the threat posed by westernisation to their survival.
- The situation is equally bad around the world, where just 40% of the 6,700 language speakers have access to education in their native tongue.
- Reviving languages that are fading or are in danger of extinction is thus a fitting Mother Language Day topic for this year.
Why bilingual education is important for maintaining linguistic and cultural diversity:
- Several studies have shown the importance of multilingual education in maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity.
- The integration of multilingual education based on mother tongue should receive the utmost priority.
- Societies like ours must act swiftly to create plans for boosting access to, equity in, and inclusion of high-quality education given how technology and artificial intelligence are changing the educational landscape around the globe.
- Teachers, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions (colleges and universities), policymakers, and schools must all be involved.
- According to Nobel Prize-winning physicist C V Raman, we need to teach science in our own language. Otherwise, science will become a pretentious endeavour. Not everyone will be able to participate in that endeavour.
- In a 1921 piece for Young India, Mahatma Gandhi expressed worry about the pressure of the foreign medium that had “turned our children into crammers and imitators.” “The foreign media has successfully made our children foreigners in their own land,” Gandhiji opined.
(Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav) Eliminate your reliance on English, a colonial legacy:
- Even though we celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav to commemorating 75 years of independence, our colonial heritage has left us dependent on England.
- The child is forced to learn his or her mother tongue as a “second/third language” in school since parents and educators continue to grant English undisputed primacy.
- Ironically, the educational system has become exclusive and restrictive as a result of our emphasis on English.
- As a result, we restricted access to information in technical and professional courses to a small group of students, making it unavailable to the great majority of our students. We didn’t even seem to be conscious that we were creating barriers in the path of our progress.
- The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a progressive initiative that encourages instruction in one’s native language beginning in primary school.
- Several studies have shown that young children who receive their education in their mother tongue outperform those who receive it in a foreign language.
- Throughout my extensive career in public life, I have emphasised the value of teaching and learning in one’s mother tongue in the whole development of children’s personalities.
- NEP), congratulated the AICTE for making the historical decision to permit BTech programmes in 11 indigenous languages. He went on to remark that the NEP’s emphasis on using students’ mother tongues for education will boost the confidence of students from disadvantaged, rural, and tribal backgrounds.
- These initiatives need to be scaled up at all levels and their purview broadened in order to provide access to high-quality education and make it more egalitarian and inclusive.
Conclusion:
- It’s a good idea that the Center is committed to emphasising native languages when it comes to employment and job creation.
- It is also positive that the Staff Selection Commission has decided to provide exams in 13 additional Indian languages in addition to Hindi and English. It is also crucial that the Supreme Court’s rulings be made available in all Indian languages.
- In particular, when it comes to technical and professional courses, we must produce content in mother tongues more swiftly. Technology will lead advancement in this direction. Let’s keep this example in mind whether we are educators, administrators, or policymakers.
