Multilingual Education and India

Kumauni & Gharwali taught at schools in Uttarakhand Photo: http://www.shaktihimalaya.com/   The government of Uttarakhand has decided to have the two major vernacular languages of the state, Kumauni and Gharwali, taught at all the primary schools. The article " Grads in Kumaoni, Garhwali may be taken as primary, junior school teachers "  in the Times of India presents it an an employment opportunity, but it seems much more than that.  The article quotes Prof Dr.. S.S. Bisht saying: ""This is very good news for us, as teaching the languages to students from class I will help revive not only the dialects but also their associated cultures," Interestingly now the state is struggling to find enough qualified teachers to implement this: "It will be difficult to meet such a high demand in so short time. However, from this academic year, we have introduced options to study the language as an elective or as a single-subject course to increase the n...

Dear Multilingual Education friends, As a follow up on the NCERT study National Study on Ten Year School Curriculum Implementation the Times of India published this week an article titled States realize English is what people want . A few quotes It's not just parents across India who are confused about the time and importance to be given to education in English and the vernacular; the latest data from NCERT reveals our education establishment is just as perplexed, with very little uniformity in the way regional languages are treated. Almost 30% states devote [only] six to seven periods a week in Class V for teaching the local language, the study says. English seems to be scoring. Introduced towards the middle of elementary school, it is now offered at the Class I level in 26 states, making it clear that most states have realized that that is what people want. "While they (parents) may kno...