<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-text-capitalize gmail-title-font entry-title" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px 10px;font-size:36px;font-family:montserrat,sans-serif;line-height:1.2;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:capitalize">Attempt To Make Hindi A Compulsory Language In Schools All Over India Was A Bad Idea</h1><div id="gmail-post-author" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"open sans",sans-serif;font-size:14px;min-height:45px"><div class="gmail-author-snippet" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-media gmail-author-snippet" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;overflow:hidden;zoom:1"><div class="gmail-media-left" style="box-sizing:border-box;padding-right:10px;display:table-cell;vertical-align:top"><a href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/author/amit_kumar_jha_1/" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(211,0,0);text-decoration-line:none"><img src="https://graph.facebook.com/2228453090604276/picture?width=150&height=150" class="gmail-avatar gmail-avatar-wordpress-social-login gmail-avatar-35 gmail-photo" height="35" width="35" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; border-radius: 100px;"></a></div><div class="gmail-media-body" style="box-sizing:border-box;overflow:hidden;zoom:1;width:10000px;display:table-cell;vertical-align:top"><a class="gmail-author-name" href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/author/amit_kumar_jha_1/" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(211,0,0);text-decoration-line:none">Amit Kumar Jha</a> <span style="box-sizing:border-box">in</span> <span class="gmail-category-span" style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/category/education/" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(211,0,0);text-decoration-line:none">Education</a></span><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><span class="gmail-time-ago" style="box-sizing:border-box">11 hours ago</span></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-campaign" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"open sans",sans-serif;font-size:14px"></div><div class="gmail-social-media-icons" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"open sans",sans-serif;font-size:14px;min-height:40px"><div style="box-sizing:border-box"><div id="gmail-post-icons" class="gmail-posts" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center;margin:20px 0px"><ul class="gmail-social-icons gmail-list-inline gmail-text-center" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto;padding-left:0px;list-style:none;width:190px;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"></ul></div></div></div><div class="gmail-post-desc" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;padding-bottom:30px;font-family:Georgia,"times new roman","bitstream charter",Times,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><div class="gmail-campaign" style="box-sizing:border-box"></div><div style="box-sizing:border-box"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 15px;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit">In the recent language row, the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwizlsjJtOPiAhXMqY8KHYbrCM8QFjAAegQIARAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindubusinessline.com%2Fnews%2Feducation%2Fhindi-not-mandatory-in-revised-draft-of-national-education-policy-2019%2Farticle27412661.ece&usg=AOvVaw14zEgEUx4H0WiPA_9rwLmO" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(211,0,0);text-decoration-line:none">National Education Policy</a> (NEP) made Hindi a mandatory language in schools even in South. Finally, this draft has been scrapped.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 15px;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit">It is an established fact that mother language eases the comprehension of subject matter. But in India there are many vernacular languages that dominate Hindi when it comes to mother language. Hindi is only the second mother language. So a student has to learn at least 3 or 4 languages viz. a vernacular, Hindi, English and sometimes other Indian languages like Sanskrit. I think language, except for higher studies, is not “education”—they are just a way of communication and presentation. More languages will take unnecessary time and effort.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 15px;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit">If you take the example of countries around the world you will find that most of them give emphasis on two languages. In the U.S. it’s English and Spanish, in Japan it’s Japanese and English, and so on. They primarily emphasize on the study of one language and the other is a second language.</p><div style="box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid rgb(255,228,1);padding:10px;background:rgb(255,228,1);margin-bottom:10px">Also read: <a href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2019/05/indian-education-an-un-updated-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(211,0,0);text-decoration-line:none">Indian Education Is A System Whose Technology Is Never Updated</a></div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 15px;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit">In India, there are three problems related to languages before the government. First is to make the curriculum easily comprehensible for the young minds. Second is to save the rich lingual past—as some languages are at the brink of extinction. India has multiple languages and dialects; saving them is necessary but a herculean task. Third is to develop a lingua-franca for the country. And obviously Hindi is best possible option. But why did the government not share this dilemma with the public? I think people would definitely coöperate.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 15px;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit">Government must initiate a “library mission” to open a library in each village with books of different languages. They should let the system run as it is, and not put extra burden on school children. The government should instead try to inculcate a reading habit among children who spend more time on the digital screens these days.</p></div></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies                     <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone:  (215) 898-7475<br>Fax:  (215) 573-2138                                      <br><br>Email:  <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>    <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>