Final decision on Hindi in Maharashtra schools after consulting language experts, opposition: CM

Following a row over Hindi as third default language in schools, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the final decision regarding the trilingual formula will be taken after discussing with literary experts, language experts, political leaders and all other stakeholders. The decision was taken after a late night meeting of school education, SCERT, and other officials.

After a detailed discussion on this issue, it was decided in the meeting to present the position of all states before everyone, to ensure that Marathi children do not suffer losses under the new education policy in accordance with the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) and to make a comprehensive presentation on other options for everyone.

It was also decided in the meeting that this should be presented and a consultation process should be implemented before all stakeholders including Marathi language scholars, literary experts, political leaders. The final decision will be taken only after this consultation process is completed, CM Fadnavis also said on this occasion. Bhuse is now going to start the next consultation process.

A meeting was held at Fadnavis' Varsha residence regarding the three-language formula in Maharashtra schools. Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, school education minister Dada Bhuse, Minister of State Dr Pankaj Bhoyar and officials from the education department were present on the occasion.

Chief minister's secretary Shrikar Pardeshi, deputy chief minister's additional chief secretary Asim Kumar Gupta, deputy chief minister's principal secretary Naveen Sona, school education department principal secretary Ranjit Singh Deol, education commissioner Sachindra Pratap Singh, and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) director Rahul Rekhawar also attended the meeting.

Several opposition leaders and Marathi outfits have strongly opposed the government’s recent order to make Hindi ‘generally’ the third language for students of Classes 1 to 5, terming it imposition of Hindi on the Marathi state, and demanding continuation of two language formula.

In its defense, the BJP government said that Hindi language is used in everyday life and the Marathi children would fall behind if it is not introduced in schools. In an amended resolution, the school education department made Hindi ‘default’ third language instead of compulsory and allowed students to opt for another Indian language if there are 20 per batch.