Mandatory Hindi Provision Removed from the Draft Education Policy

After facing severe backlash especially from southern India, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has removed the clause from the draft national education policy (NEP) which made Hindi teaching mandatory in all schools.

What did the Draft NEP Propose?

Students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying in Grade 6 may do so subject to the following provisions:

• The study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages.
• NEP prescribed the study of the regional language, Hindi and English languages by students in the non-Hindi-speaking states.

Revised Draft

The revised draft states that students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages (one language at the literature level) in their modular Board Examinations sometime during secondary school.

The revised draft has retained the recommendation to introduce a three-language formula from Class 1 onwards and has removed the clause stipulating the specific languages that students must choose.