New Delhi: Laxmikant Deshmukh, the chairperson of the Maharashtra government-appointed Language Consultation Committee chairperson has opposed the State government’s decision to make Hindi compulsory.

In a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the panel headed by Deshmukh has urged the government to scrap the order, reported The Hindu.

“The primary school students should be taught in mother tongue, and the three-language policy should be implemented from higher secondary level only. The forced decision on Hindi language is unnecessary,” says the letter written by Deshmukh.

“At present the quality of Marathi and English language in school education is poor as most of the schools have one or two teachers. Introducing a third language will increase the burden of the teachers and in the process the possibility of learning one language properly will decrease,” it added.

On April 17, the BJP-led Maharashtra government had said that as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Hindi will be made a compulsory third language from classes 1 to 5. The decision will result in Hindi being taught alongside Marathi and English, according to the NEP.

In his letter, Deshmukh has said that if Hindi speaking teachers are selected based on their speaking skills, employment of Marathi teachers may be taken away from them.

“This will cause cognitive load on children’s brains. Since English language has been made compulsory in Maharashtra since 2001 and is required for parental approval and higher education, the State government has adopted a policy of “better English with better Marathi” as per the report of the Language Advisory Committee.”

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