Students till Class 4 should be taught only in mother-tongue: Tara Bhavalkar

Mumbai: Students till Class four should be taught only in their mother-tongue, according to Tara Bhavalkar, president of the 98th All India Marathi Literary Conference. “At that age, a student’s physical and mental capacity should be taken into consideration,” Bhavalkar, 86, said.

Her remarks came amid growing opposition to Maharashtra government’s policy on including Hindi as “generally” the third language in Marathi and English medium schools from Classes 1 to 5 from the academic year 2025-26. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said that a final decision on the three-language formula will be taken only after comprehensive consultations with all stakeholders.

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“Forcing other languages on these students at this age will be unjust and non-educational,” Bhavalkar said. Bhavalkar also opposed teaching students English language from first standard itself. “This leads to the student not understanding his mother-tongue and the foreign language,” she added.