Several suggestions approved under the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP) by the Central government on Wednesday are ready to be implemented by the state government. The school education department has already worked on providing education in mother tongue as the medium of instruction for students till class 5. Moreover, draft for Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE)- preparatory class Balavatika for children below the age of 5 is also ready.
The NEP has approved the draft under which mother tongue or regional language will be promoted as the medium of instruction till class 5 in schools. In Madhya Pradesh, a committee has been constituted to prepare books in Bhili, Gondi and Korku- languages of dominant tribes in state. The committee has been entrusted to prepare books for students up to class 5 in their mother language Bhili, Gondi and Korku. Sources in the department say that it will not take too long now for final edition of the books.
Former school education minister Deepak Joshi had sent this suggestion from Madhya Pradesh. “Students from tribal background or villages feel uneasy when confronted with pure Hindi in schools. I had faced the problem myself. When I came to Bhopal in class 7, I used to speak Malvi but in Bhopal pure Hindi was spoken,” said Deepak Joshi. He said that if students are taught in their native language or dialects it will help them a lot. He said that it was an achievement for him that his suggestion was approved by the union ministry.
The NEP also aims at preparing E-content in regional language. The Tribal Research Institute has prepared syllabus, chapters and other material in tribal languages and has also digitized it. This will act as a boost in the coming days.
Another important development comes in the form of Early Childhood Care and Education Curriculum (ECCEC). State government had been working on it for past several years. A guideline and policy has been prepared for crèche or preparatory schools.
The state government has already developed a play-based curriculum of Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) matching universal standards. Pilot projects too had been started by the Women and Child Development Department in selected aganwadis. ‘We had prepared the whole guidelines, policy and curriculum considering the draft of new education policy,’ said an official related with this project earlier. This project has been termed as Balavatika for children below the age of 5- by the Union government.
