ALIGARH  : Prof. M. J. Warsi, Chairman, Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University delivered a plenary talk on “Exploring Mother Tongue Education and Multilingualism with reference to NEP-2020”, at a national seminar on “Teaching-Learning in Mother Tongue (Linguistics) and NEP-2020” organized by the Department of Linguistics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Prof Warsi said that the mother tongue plays a critical role in the cognitive and intellectual development of a child and it is essential to recognize the importance of the mother tongue and to encourage their continued use in education. Overall, mother-tongue education needs to be prioritized in policy development to ensure more responsive and nuanced approaches that take into account the unique linguistic and cultural needs of learners.

“Multilingual phenomenon has always been an integral part of human society and the rich linguistic diversity of India has been reflected in the plurality of its society, which is the biggest strength of the country”, he added.

Prof Warsi underscored that the biggest question before us is how multilingual richness is encroached by monolingual education, mainly reflecting the dominance of English and why is it so that even after 75 years of independence, we fail to appreciate the mother tongue as a cognitive and pedagogical resource.

“There are around 1600 mother tongues in India that belong to five different language families. It is quite evident that there is a lot of diversity in our country which reflects the beautiful blend of linguistic and cultural diversity,” he pointed out.

Prof Warsi stressed that NEP-2020 clearly states that wherever possible the medium of instruction in schools until Grade V; preferably until Grade VIII, should be the mother tongue or the local or regional language.

He emphasized that the renewed resource allocation and clearer policy objectives in the direction of revalorization of local languages will achieve the ultimate end of an effective mother tongue-based education system in India.