24-04-2025
As Hindi made optional, Maharashtra schools look to offer options such as Urdu and Gujarati as third language
After the Maharashtra government rolled back its decision to make Hindi mandatory as the third language in classes 1 to 5 across Marathi- and English-medium schools in the state, the schools are looking to offer options such as Gujarati and Urdu.
However, the absence of clear guidelines from the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has sparked widespread confusion and concerns about a chaotic start to the academic year beginning June.
The government issued an order on April 16 making Hindi the mandatory third language from classes 1 to 5, but later gave in to the pushback against the move. School Education Minister Dadaji Bhuse on April 22 said after a Cabinet meeting, 'The word mandatory will be removed… The three-language formula remains, but schools must accommodate other language choices if a significant number of students in a class request it.'
However, with no clear alternatives to Hindi provided by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT), many fear that schools may impose Hindi as the default third language. Furthermore, with no freedom to decide what they should do and whether to offer options, concerns arise that some students may be left with only two languages, leading to inconsistency in school education, which contradicts the uniformity expected under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Some schools have already begun taking the initiative. In Mumbai, Anjuman Islam English Medium School plans to offer Urdu as a third language. The institution, which already runs Urdu-medium schools, has the necessary resources, including trained teachers and curriculum materials.
Similarly, schools in Pune have begun collecting nursery rhymes and basic learning materials in Gujarati and Bengali to meet the demand from parents of students. However, the larger problem lies in the government's lack of clarity on whether schools will have that liberty.
Nazma Kazi, trustee of Anjuman Islam Educational Institutions, emphasised the need for communication from the government. 'Even if the SCERT needs time to prepare the content, the state must officially allow schools to decide their third language for now, along with a clear timeline for when structured support will be provided,' she said.
Jagruti Dharmadhikari, director of Padma Education Society, which runs several schools and is also the president of the Independent English Medium School Managements' Association, said, 'While the decision to make Hindi optional is welcome, it has brought more confusion than clarity.'
Dharmadhikari noted that with basic AI tools, schools run by the society have managed to generate translated content, such as nursery rhymes, in Gujarati and Bengali, which can easily be verified by teachers fluent in those languages.
'If we can do this, SCERT certainly can with the available resources of subject experts. It is a question of willingness. The government says the third language should be taught only at a conversational level. Then why the delay in giving out the curriculum structure for other languages?' she asked.
Teachers have also pointed out that Maharashtra already has schools functioning in eight different mediums, suggesting that foundational-level content for various Indian languages is already available and can be adapted. School managements and educationists fear that, without concrete guidance, many institutions might default to teaching Hindi.
Senior educationist Vasant Kalpande voiced strong concerns about the rushed rollout of the three-language formula without proper preparation. 'What is the point of introducing it when there is no clarity on options to Hindi, which could lead to some students left with only two languages to study, while others learn three,' he said.
He questioned if the state plans to subtly impose Hindi as a third language, leaving room for confusion by delaying options.
'Most government schools are likely to follow suit out of fear. In other cases, leaving it up to the school to decide whether or not to teach Hindi as a third language will be chaotic, especially without adequate options. To avoid this chaos, the state should defer implementation of three languages to Class 1 until there is clarity on options,' he suggested.
Adding to the concerns, senior educator Basanti Roy pointed out the logistical challenges of introducing a third language in under-resourced government schools, particularly in rural areas.
'Many zilla parishad (ZP)-run Marathi medium schools have only one teacher who is often unqualified to teach English, yet English is already mandatory as a second language. The reverse is also true in English medium schools, where teachers struggle with Marathi. The state never evaluated the effectiveness of implementing these two languages, and now it has introduced a third without addressing existing gaps,' she said.
