Source: UNESCO
Context:
UNESCO has released its flagship report, Bhasha Matters: The State of the Education Report for India 2025, calling for a national transformation in India’s language-of-instruction framework. The report strongly advocates mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) to enhance equity, learning outcomes and linguistic inclusion, particularly for marginalised, tribal and multilingual learners.
Key Recommendations – UNESCO (India Education Report 2025)
- National Mission on MTB-MLE
- Create a coordinated national mission supported by Centre-State institutional partnerships to implement multilingual education.
- Strengthen Language-in-Education Policies
- Operationalise clear state-level MTB-MLE policies aligned with local linguistic diversity and sociocultural needs.
- Teacher Capacity Building
- Train and recruit multilingual teachers; reform teacher education (pre-service and in-service) to integrate multilingual pedagogy.
- Learner-Centred Pedagogy
- Adopt flexible pathways that recognise students’ language backgrounds and promote confidence and comprehension.
- Community & Indigenous Knowledge Integration
- Promote community participation and embed local oral traditions, knowledge systems and cultural narratives.
- Multilingual Learning Materials
- Develop high-quality textbooks, assessments and digital/print resources across multiple Indian languages for higher grades as well.
- Gender-Responsive Approach
- Apply MTB-MLE strategies across elementary to secondary levels with inclusive, gender-sensitive focus.
- Digital Public Infrastructure
- Use digital platforms to support multilingual teaching, learning, assessments and teacher mentoring.
- Inclusive Language Technologies
- Invest in translation, speech and AI-based tools to support multilingual learning while addressing digital access gaps.
- Sustainable Financing
- Ensure predictable, equitable and long-term funding to strengthen multilingual education and language-based technologies.
