No language compulsory in NEP 2020: Centre tells Karnataka HC

Bengaluru: The Union government has told the Karnataka High Court that there is no mention of making any language compulsory in the National Education Policy (NEP) -2020 or its rules.

The information was submitted by the central government in an affidavit to the division bench of Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi that is hearing the petition by Samskrit Bharati (Karnataka) Trust and others. With this, the Karnataka state government, which had made learning Kannada compulsory for all degree students, has suffered a major setback.

The affidavit filed by the undersecretary of the department of higher education under the ministry of education has stated that NEP-2020 is designed to achieve a comprehensive educational system for providing easy access to citizens keeping in mind the aspirations of local, regional, and national levels, a TOI report said.

“Specifically, para 22.10 states that higher educational institutions will use mother tongue/ local language as medium of instruction and/ or offer bilingually. Para 23.6 envisions that a rich variety educational software will be made available for students and teachers at all levels, in all major Indian languages. Teaching- learning e-content will continue to be developed by all states in all regional languages as well as by the NCERT, CIET, CBSE, NIOS, and other bodies/ institutions and will be uploaded onto DIKSHA platform,” the report quoted the central government as saying.

Lawyers representing the students appealed to the court to issue directions to the state government based on the submission of the Union government to allow the students to pursue studies in languages o their choice. However, the court adjourned the hearing for April 4, asking for clarification from the state government on the matter.