Teachers few, complexities many, say educationists

Mumbai: The state govt resolution (GR) issued on Tuesday, mandating the teaching of three languages from Class I, may face practical problems during implementation, say schoolteachers and principals.A principal of a zilla parishad PM Shri school said, "Govt schools already face a grave shortage of teachers for the current curriculum, and this policy will further increase the demand for qualified teachers." The principal added, "What will happen if, in a class of 60 children, three different languages are chosen? How will we manage then?" Schools having less than 20 students may find it feasible to opt for Hindi, as offering another language would incur additional cost for online education.

Some secondary school teachers also highlighted the low popularity of local languages as mediums of instruction. Tushar Mhatre, a teacher at the Modern School in Vashi, said, "Very few students actually take up any local language as a medium of instruction for their further studies."Regarding the state govt's justification that the scripts of Hindi and Marathi are similar as both are in Devanagari, Mhatre explained, "In the first standard, we don't actually teach the script.

The process of learning any language begins with verbal communication, then visual association, followed by reading and writing, which come in third or fourth standard." Speaking on the academic burden faced by young students, a principal of a school in Khar said, "It takes time for a child to get used to the academic environment of a school. To pressure the child at such a young age is unnecessary." The third language is to be introduced in Class 1. Another teacher spoke about the difficulty faced by students who speak different dialects or languages at home, saying, "There are many children who speak a different version of Marathi or an entirely different mother tongue. For them, it will be like virtually learning four languages."