The Centre has tweaked its draft education policy after massive uproar in the south over the adoption of a three-language formula in schools — Hindi, English and the local mother tongue in non-Hindi states.

“In keeping with the principle of flexibility, 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 some time during secondary school,” says the revised draft.

The original draft required students from non-Hindi states to study Hindi and English apart from the regional languages.

In Tamil Nadu, parties of every political shade — from the opposition DMK to the Left and actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam — slammed the report, which they saw as a precursor to the imposition of Hindi

“The DMK will never allow imposition of Hindi. It will raise its voice in Parliament and outside and strive to stall it,” DMK’s MP Kanimozhi Karunandhi said.

Although the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), an ally of the BJP, was muted in its response, the Tamil Nadu government maintained that the state will persist with a two-language formula – Tamil and English.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had clarified that the committee had only prepared a draft report and no decision has been taken on implementing it. The draft was proposed by the panel constituted by Javadekar when he was HRD minister.

First Published: Jun 03, 2019 12:26 IST