UNESCO Makes A Strong Case for Mother-Tongue Instruction
Kartavya Desk Staff
Context: UNESCO released its flagship report “Bhasha Matters: The State of the Education Report for India 2025”, strongly advocating mother-tongue based instruction in India.
• The report calls for a national mission on Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) to improve equity, learning outcomes and linguistic inclusion.
About UNESCO Makes A Strong Case for Mother-Tongue Instruction:
Key recommendations of UNESCO (India Education Report 2025)
• National mission on MTB-MLE: Establish a coordinated national framework with strong Centre–State institutional alignment.
• State-level language-in-education policies: Operationalise clear MTB-MLE policies adapted to local linguistic realities.
• Teacher capacity building: Recruit and train teachers with multilingual competence; reform pre-service and in-service teacher education.
• Learner-centred pedagogy: Design flexible language pathways responsive to students’ linguistic backgrounds.
• Community and indigenous knowledge integration: Institutionalise community participation and local knowledge systems in schooling.
• Multilingual learning materials: Develop quality textbooks, assessments and resources in multiple languages across grades.
• Gender-responsive approach: Embed MTB-MLE across middle, secondary and alternative schooling with gender sensitivity.
• Digital public infrastructure: Use digital platforms to support multilingual teaching, learning and teacher mentoring.
• Inclusive language technologies: Invest in translation tools, speech technologies and AI while bridging the digital divide.
• Sustainable financing: Ensure equitable funding for multilingual education and language-responsive technologies.
Relevance with UPSC syllabus:
• GS Paper I – Society
• Linguistic diversity, social inclusion, preservation of cultural identities.
• Linguistic diversity, social inclusion, preservation of cultural identities.
• GS Paper II – Governance & Education
• Education policy, federalism in language policy, role of international institutions like UNESCO. Inclusive education, equity in learning outcomes, marginalised and tribal communities.
• Education policy, federalism in language policy, role of international institutions like UNESCO.
• Inclusive education, equity in learning outcomes, marginalised and tribal communities.
• GS Paper IV – Ethics
• Respect for diversity, dignity, cultural rights and social justice in public policy.
• Respect for diversity, dignity, cultural rights and social justice in public policy.