In News:

As the world marks International Mother Language Day (21 February), declared by UNESCO in 1999 and observed globally since 2000, the theme of linguistic justice has gained renewed urgency. The day commemorates the 1952 Bangla Language Movement in Dhaka and seeks to protect linguistic heritage amid rapid globalization. Against this backdrop, UNESCO’s 7th State of the Education Report (SoER) for India 2025, titled Bhasha Matters: Mother Tongue and Multilingual Education, reframes linguistic diversity as central to quality and inclusive education.

UNESCO SoER 2025: Key Focus

Published by the UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia, the SoER 2025 aligns with SDG 4 (Quality Education) and India’s reform trajectory under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The report calls for strengthening Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) and identifies a persistent gap between policy commitments and classroom realities.

Core Areas of Emphasis:

• Access, Inclusion and Equity: Ensuring tribal children, girls, and children with disabilities learn in languages they understand.
• Contextual Learning: Integrating local knowledge systems across school and teacher education.
• Appreciation of Linguistic Diversity: Recognizing children’s linguistic repertoires as assets.
• Skills for Sustainable Futures: Using multilingualism to build cognitive flexibility and facilitate additional language acquisition.
• Institutionalisation: Embedding MTB-MLE in policy, teacher training, and digital ecosystems.

India’s Linguistic Landscape: Opportunity and Crisis

India represents one of the most linguistically diverse societies in the world:

• 1,369 mother tongues; 121 languages spoken by over 10,000 people.
• Linguistic Diversity Index: 0.914 (among the highest globally).
• Four major language families: Indo-Aryan (78%), Dravidian (20%), Austro-Asiatic (1.2%), and Tibeto-Burman (0.8%).
• Nearly 200 languages are vulnerable or endangered.

The UN estimates that a language disappears every two weeks worldwide. In India, the loss disproportionately affects tribal and minoritized communities. A rigid linguistic hierarchy-English at the top, followed by dominant regional languages-creates a “double divide,” marginalizing indigenous languages from education, governance, and digital spaces.

The Learning Crisis: Language Mismatch

A 2022 NCERT report reveals that 44% of Indian children begin schooling in a language different from their home language. This mismatch contributes to early learning deficits, poor foundational literacy, and higher dropout rates—especially among Adivasi communities facing a “triple disadvantage” (economic, social, linguistic).

Research highlights that early education in the mother tongue:

• Reduces cognitive load.
• Improves comprehension and retention.
• Strengthens critical thinking.
• Builds self-esteem and identity affirmation.

Recognizing this, NEP 2020 mandates instruction in the home language at least till Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8, marking a departure from colonial-era language hierarchies.

Constitutional Safeguards

India’s constitutional framework provides robust linguistic protections:

• Article 29: Right to conserve language, , culture.
• Article 350A: States must provide primary education in the mother tongue for linguistic minorities.
• Article 350B: Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities.
• Part XVII (Articles 343–351): Official language provisions.
• Eighth Schedule: 22 recognized languages.

Despite this framework, implementation gaps remain substantial.

Ground Realities and Innovations

The SoER 2025 highlights promising practices:

• Odisha’s Tribal MLE Programme: Covers 21 tribal languages across 17 districts, reaching nearly 90,000 children.
• Digital initiatives such as DIKSHA, PM eVIDYA, and AI-based language tools are enabling multilingual content creation.
• Community-led curriculum development in languages like Gondi, Santali, Khasi, and Mizo demonstrates the pedagogical value of indigenous knowledge systems.