Maj Gen S K Sharma
There is a general feeling in the public that most of the schools in Jammu province are not following the National Education Policy. Some of these would have reported wrongly to the Govt of India that they have implemented this policy in toto, thus hoodwinking the govt.
National Education Policy NEP-2020 was launched in 2020. It clearly says that all the instructions in classes 1 to 5will be given in mother tongue/local language. It also states that the existing three-language-formula is to be continued wherein the very first language is the mother tongue, which is Dogri in case of Jammu province.
CBSE Schools:
There are around 40 CBSE schools in Jammu region and these are to follow the syllabus issued by NCERT.
Some of the students studying in these schools have reported that they are being convinced to study French language in place of Dogri.It is felt that these schools are neither aware of the National Education Policy issued by Govt of India nor the implementation instructions issued by NCERT in the form of National Curriculum Framework (NCF)-2022 and NCF-2023.
Are the CBSE Schools exempted to follow Govt orders? In case they have any clarification, the public would like to know that.
Schools Under JK BOSE
Condition in private and govt. schools in Jammu province is no different. Most of the schools in Jammu city do not teach Dogri language as a subject. On being asked about the reason, they state that they follow the syllabus given to them by JK SCERT and JK BOSE which do not mention Dogri as a compulsory language.
Are JK SCERT and JK BOSE also defying the orders on National Education Policy? I am certain they wouldn’t be doing that. However, they are requested to issue clarification for the benefit of the public.
Govt Orders
Govt orders substantiating the facts above are mentioned here. For all the private and govt schools in the country, the curriculum to be followed is mainly contained in three documents viz. NEP-2020, NCF-2022 and NCF-2023. Extracts of these documents regarding teaching of mother tongue are given below.
National Educational Policy (NEP)-2020
NEP-2020clearly states that the 3-language formula will be continued in all schools. It lays special thrust on the teaching of mother tongue/local language in primary classes in schools.Its relevant extracts are as under:
Para 4.11: The medium of instruction until at least grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond will be the home language/mother tongue/local language.
This will be followed by both public and private schools.
Para 4.12. It is mandatory to achieve reading and writing skills in mother tongue in Foundational Stage (From Nursery to Grade 2).
(Foundational stage is the first 5 years of study i.e Nursery, LKG, UKG, 1st and 2nd Grade)
Para 4.13: The three-language formula will be continued as per which first language will be mother tongue, second language English/Hindi and third language could be any other language.
National Curriculum Framework (NCF)-2022
NCF-2022 is a 360-page document issued by NCERT guiding all schools on the implementation of NEP-2020. The document was published in 2022 and meant for the classes up to the Foundational stage i.e. up to Class 2.
Medium of Instruction during these years will be the mother tongue as given at Page 76 of NCF which reads as under:
“Since children learn concepts most rapidly and deeply in their home language, the primary medium of instruction would optimally be the child’s home language/mother tongue/familiar language (also referred to below as L1) in the Foundational Stage.”
This should be the approach in both public and private schools.
Chapter 2 (Page 49) of the NCF 2022 elaborates on the curricular goals (CG) to be achieved by the schools at the completion of each year in the Foundational Stage. Details of some of the Curricular Goals to be achieved at the end of the Foundational Stage are mentioned here.
Curricular Goal No 10 (CG-10) (Page 56):Children will develop fluency in reading and writing in Language 1 which is mother tongue/local language.
Curricular Goal No 11 (CG-11) (Page 56):Children begin to read and write in Language 2 (L2), which is the less familiar language.
NCF-2022 also gives the Learning Outcomes which every student is supposed to achieve in each year. All the schools will be responsible for this and prepare students accordingly. Details of these are given at Tables 52 to 57 (Pages262-267) of the NCF.
National Curriculum Framework (NCF)-2023
This document is a 600-page document released by NCERT elaborating the methodology to implement NEP-2020 from Grades 1 to 12. Salient features are given as under:
a. Students will learn at least 3 languages in their school years, denoted as R1, R2 and R3
b. R1: This is the language used as medium of instruction and in which literacy is first obtained. It is the mother tongue/home language/local language
c. R2: Any other language including English
d. R3: A third language gets introduced in the Middle Stage, i.e 6,7,8 Grades
e. To complete Grade 12, students should pass two examinations in languages
f. Periods allotted for Mother Tongue (Sec 3.4 of NCF at Page 93)
Mother tongue – 275 period at Preparatory stage
120 periods at Middle Stage
86 periods at Secondary level
Status of Dogri Language
It is not known as to why a Dogra State of J&K with a Dogra ruler and where most of the people were speaking Dogri, suddenly gave a cold shoulder to Dogri language after 1947. It was neither made a national language by including it in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution nor the State language. To the contrary, Kashmiri and Urdu were included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
It is only after a great struggle by the locals that Dogri was included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution in 2003 and also made a state language in 2020.
Despite that Dogri has not been made compulsory in the schools of Jammu province. This has resulted in decreasing number of Dogri speaking locals in Jammu province endangering the age-old Dogra culture.
It would be worthwhile mentioning here that in most of the states of the country, the local language is compulsory in schools. In the neighbouring state of Punjab, the local language is compulsory till 10th class. Any govt. or private school which defaults is punished and fined up to Rs. Two lakh
Recommendation
It is high time our govt authorities realize this grave situation and make Dogri as a compulsory language at school levels and save the Dogra culture from becoming extinct.
(The author is Former Member, SMVD Shrine Board)
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