‘English is not an Indian language’ says Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Friday that English isn’t an Indian language and education in the mother tongue as suggested in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 would strengthen Indian languages. He was speaking at a webinar on ‘NEP 2020 - The Brighter Future of Education’, organised by ASSOCHAM.

India got a new NEP after 34 years as it was passed by the cabinet in late July and the ambitious document is trying to bring in a large number of changes that could completely transform India’s education system.

The changes include mother tongue as a medium of instruction up to class 5, as free education for all till 18, removing the division between vocational and non-vocational subjects, introducing multidisciplinary education, scrapping the 10+2 structure for a 5+3+3+4 structure in school education, changing the board exam pattern, scrapping MPhil, introducing a choice between 3 or



4-year undergraduate courses, etc.

The education minister said that English was not an Indian language and lamented that some people felt that learning English was a must to progress in the international field.

"I must say we are not against English but mother tongue as a medium of education would help strengthen Indian languages,” he said.

“The government does not intend to impose any language on any state. We are in the favour of strengthening 22 Indian languages and we want to promote all of these languages," Ramesh Pokhriyal added.

"People need to understand that English is not an Indian language. I would like to tell those people who argue that if we do not learn English we cannot progress on a global level, we need to look at countries like Japan, Russia, Israel, France, USA that all provide education in their language," the education minister said.