The Centre informed the apex court that Section 29(2)(f) of RTE Act says that “medium of instruction shall, as far as possible, be in child’s mother tongue”. (File)The National Curriculum Framework (NFC) of 2005, Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, lay stress on providing school education in home language/ mother tongue, the Centre has told the Supreme Court. The Union Ministry of Education said this in response to a notice issued by the top court on an appeal filed by the Andhra Pradesh government, which challenged the state High Court order striking down its decision making English medium mandatory for classes I to VI in government schools beginning 2020-21 academic session.
The Centre informed the apex court that Section 29(2)(f) of RTE Act says that “medium of instruction shall, as far as possible, be in child’s mother tongue”. The NCF, it said in an affidavit, also states that “home language(s) of children…should be medium of instruction in schools”. The RTE Act, the affidavit stated, also has this extract from NCF: “NEP 2005 defines home language or mother tongue as languages subsuming the languages of home, larger kinship groups, street and neighbourhood that a child acquires naturally from his/her home and societal environment. If a school does not have provisions for teaching in the child home language(s) at the higher levels, primary school curriculum must still be covered through the home language(s)…”
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