Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday, December 24 said that studying in the mother tongue, as provided under the National Educational Policy (NEP) 2020, will increase the ability to think, reason, analyse and research. He said this while addressing a gathering at the 95th anniversary of Sheth GC High School at Vijapur.
In this context, Shah said, "If a student reads, speaks and thinks in the mother tongue, then it will increase his ability to think, his reasoning power, the capability of analysis, and research will naturally emerge within this child." Additionally, Shah said that the NEP will make India the number one country in the next 25 years, as stated in a report by PTI.
Under the British education policy for pre-Independent India, rote learning was a sign of intelligence, he said, adding that students did not have the power to think, research, reason, analyse, decide and understand, which created many issues in society. "The new education policy, which has made fundamental changes, including laying emphasis on the mother tongue, will make India number one in the world in 25 years," the Home and Cooperation Minister said.
"The fundamental change in the NEP is to educate students in their mother tongue at primary and secondary level as far as possible. I am confident in another two, five, seven years, all the students in the country will be imparted education in their mother tongue and their mothers will be able to teach them in their language," he added.
Further, he disclosed that the syllabi of technical, medical and higher education are being translated into the mother tongue. Medical education in Bhopal was being imparted in Hindi after the translation of the syllabus of the first semester, he added. "Gujarati, Telugu, Odia, Punjabi and Bengali — higher and medical education courses will begin in all these languages. From there, India will begin to contribute significantly in research and development," he said.
Talking about the importance of NEP, Shah asserted that, "NEP has created a big role for commercial and skill education. More than 50 per cent students will be connected to commercial education before Class 10, and this will help to take them towards self employment, micro and cottage industry."
