Mother tongue gaining ground in early education, says Edu minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on July 30 reaffirmed the growing national consensus around implementing mother tongue instruction in early education, a key recommendation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

At an event held by the Ministry of Education to mark five years of NEP implementation, Pradhan addressed criticisms about the policy’s acceptance across states.

He said the foundational shift toward native language instruction is already taking root across the country.

“Some friends criticize us… that some states may not like the NEP. I say that maybe there aren’t any states that are not implementing the NEP because today, in the country, there is agreement… In the preparatory and foundational stage, NEP recommends teaching in the mother tongue,” Pradhan said.

“Today, all states and all administrative units are making their own plans to take this forward… In the coming days, the country’s foundational education will be mother-tongue based,” Pradhan added.

He also called early childhood education reforms through ‘balvatikas’ a “paradigm shift,” noting the government's effort to build a strong foundation from the pre-primary level onward.

“Another example of a paradigm shift is the new-age textbooks brought to us by NCERT. With new approaches and in new ways, the NEP has started taking shape in textbooks,” he added.

In another key announcement, Pradhan confirmed that four international universities have been granted letters of intent by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to set up campuses in India.

With this, the total number of foreign universities cleared to establish Indian campuses has risen to 11.

The move reflects the government’s continuing push toward internationalization and academic modernization under the NEP framework.