The three language formula has a basic flaw, it does not consider the foundational reality. And that makes it an imposition. Overlooking the capacity of our children, their assimilative abilities, we cannot impose any extra burden on them. According to the Annual State of Education Report, conducted by Pratham, 27 percent of class eight students failed to read text written at class two level. It was either in Hindi or in their mother tongue. It was even worse in 2022, when 73.8 percent could not read a text in simple English. There is no data available on third language. In fact it creates complications for the learners when one is faced with the insurmountable. It becomes a cognitive load.

In a federal set up, no policy – neither educational nor any other policy – can benefit the nation if it is based on untested assumptions or political convenience. Only through a proper research and statistical analysis can a policy address real needs and maximize effectiveness and benefits. The Centre’s push for a third language in schools under its New Education Policy (NEP) of 2020, in the context of which the Union government has refused to release the educational assistance to Tamil Nadu, is an example of a policy based on wrong assumptions.

In fact, the BJP government’s move has intensified already strained relationship between North and South. There are also growing concern among the southern states with regard to their political representation in the Parliament. This particular concern is based on the looming threat of a delimitation after 2026 that would empower the more populous Hindi-belt states in terms of the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha at the expense of those of the South. The BJP-led government’s refusal to release the educational assistance to Tamil Nadu due to the state’s failure to implement the three-language formula has flared up overall grievances of the southern states, a situation where these states are pushed into. In fact the defense minister should have been asking the Centre to unconditionally release the educational assistance meant for Tamil Nadu instead of making statements.

According a report published recently in The Hindu, the National Achievement Surveys (NAS), conducted every three years since 2001 to assess learning outcomes of teaching a third language in schools, have repeatedly been giving a dismal picture. The NAS 2017, for example, found that only 48 percent of Class VIII students could read a simple paragraph in their regional language or Hindi; only 47 percent could write an essay or letter; and just 42 percent had a good grasp of grammar. Similarly, the NAS 2021 found almost similar level of result on these parameters: 56 percent, 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively. It is important to note that the NAS does not assess third language proficiency. This raises serious concerns about the union government’s reluctance to scrutinize the effectiveness and instead go for an all out drive to push for a third language in schools.

It has been widely observed that a large number of India’s school students are struggling with even their mother tongue and English. This raises the question as to why we shouldn’t be focusing on teaching two languages well rather than burdening the students with three languages and thereby making them far less proficient in all the three. In the absence of credible research on the third language proficiency, the government should not have gone under the NEP 2020 to make the third language compulsory.

With the ideological positioning of the ruling BJP, it is bound to create discontentment in states like Tamil Nadu, which historically opposed the three-language formula and adhered instead to a two-language policy of Tamil and English. The state views the inclusion of Hindi as an imposition and a threat to its linguistic and cultural identity. Right since beginning, the state has been at the forefront of resistance to “Hindi imperialism”. In the past, Tamil Nadu has witnessed several instances of agitations and language riots, leading even to self-immolations and deaths. It was this resistance to “Hindi imperialism” that led Tamil Nadu not to host any Jawaharlal Navodaya Vidyalayas, financed by the central government, since those schools teach Hindi as a compulsory subject.

Not only the DMK but almost every opposition party has severely criticised the NEP 2020 for linking central educational funds to the adoption of the three-language formula, denouncing such a move as coercive. The Union government must refrain from using the New Education Policy to push a political agenda in Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government’s concern that the NEP could create hurdles for children from marginalised communities in the state is a serious issue, and this concern must be addressed adequately.

Education is a subject on the Concurrent List in the Constitution, meaning both the Union and state governments have jurisdiction over it. Because of this reason the Union government’s decision to link funds to the compliance with the NEP 2020 infringes on the state’s constitutional autonomy to set its own educational policies. (IPA Service)