NEP 2020: Not mandatory to teach students in mother tongue: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 does not make it mandatory to teach children in mother tongue but suggests imparting early education in regional language/mother tongue.

“There is a need to understand that language is a medium to provide education. The language in which a student can easily learn should be used to impart education,” Modi said.

A student should not waste his/her energy in understanding a language instead of learning a subject, he added.

Addressing a virtual conclave on ‘School Education in 21st Century’, the Prime Minister said NEP 2020 has been prepared with the objective of reducing the syllabus and focusing on the fundamentals. There is also a need for teachers to learn new things and unlearn a few old ones.

“Pre-school is the first outside experience for the students. There is a need for teachers from the pre-school level to focus on fun, activity-based and discovery-based learning,” Modi said.

The new education policy is a result of hard work of various stakeholders over the last 4-5 years. But there is still more work to be done. This is just the start and the aim is to ensure its effective implementation, he added.

The Ministry of Education is organising the two-day conclave as part of the Shiksha Parv.

Shikshak Parv is being celebrated from September 8- 25 to felicitate the teachers and to take new education policy forward. The Education Ministry is organising various webinars, virtual conferences and conclaves on various aspects of the new education policy.

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