Language panel urges Maharashtra CM to revoke Hindi move

The Maharashtra governments language consultation committee has urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to revoke the decision to make Hindi a mandatory third language for students of classes 1 to 5 reported news agency PTIFadnavis on Sunday dismissed concerns over the imposition of the Hindi language in the state asserting Marathi will continue to be compulsory reported PTIThe state government has given its nod to implement the threelanguage formula under the National Education Policy Accordingly it has made Hindi a must for students of classes 1 to 5 in English and Marathimedium schoolsIn a letter to the CM on Sunday the language consultation committees chief Laxmikant Deshmukh claimed the State Council of Educational Research and Training SCERT did not consider their thoughts and suggestions before making the Hindi push reported PTIWhile the government has appointed a language consultation committee to advise it on language matters the SCERT has not taken the panel into consideration the letter saidNo language has been made compulsory in the National Education Policy On the contrary the NEP states that education should be imparted through the mother tongue Therefore making Hindi mandatory as a third language is not right the letter said reported PTIHindi should not be made mandatory at any stage of education Instead a policy should be adopted to use Hindi as little as possible the letter saidIt is not the language of employment income prestige or knowledge the letter said urging the chief minister to revoke the decision concerning Hindi reported PTIThe opposition parties particularly the Shiv Sena UBT and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS have claimed Hindi is being imposed in MaharashtraTalking to reporters Fadnavis said It is wrong to say that attempts are being made to impose Hindi Marathi will be compulsory in Maharashtra There will be no other compulsionWe need to understand that Hindi has not been made mandatory instead of Marathi The Marathi language is a must he saidFadnavis said the New Education Policy states that two of the three languages to be taught to students must be Indian languagesThe New Education Policy has provided an opportunity to learn three languages It is important to learn languages The rule states that two of these three languages must be Indian Marathi is already being made compulsory You cannot take any other language except Hindi Tamil Malayalam or Gujarati the chief minister said reported PTIHe said teachers are available for the Hindi language as per recommendations In case of other regional languages teachers are not available he added reported PTIFadnavis questioned the peoples perception of Indian languages and EnglishI am surprised by one thing We oppose Indian languages like Hindi but we praise English Why do many people feel that English is closer to them and Indian languages are farther We should also think about this he said reported PTIWith inputs from PTIatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params