As many of the Marathi-speaking families would not opt for Gujarati, Bengali or any southern state languages, Hindi would remain the preferred third language in most of the schools. This means Hindi will be the most preferred language for Standard 1 to 5 across all schools in Maharashtra.
On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government came out with orders which state that if anyone wants to have an alternative language to Hindi, they can opt for the same, but it would require a minimum of 20 students in the class.
“If the requirement is not met, the education for the opted language will be offered through online studies,” a revised Government Resolution (GR) issued by the state government on June 17 mentioned.
Earlier, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray had objected to making Hindi a compulsory subject for students from Standard 1 to 5 in schools across the state.
Thackeray’s objection came a day after the state government approved the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, introducing Hindi as a mandatory third language for students from Standards 1 to 5 in Marathi and English medium schools.
The MNS chief had reiterated that Hindi is not the national language and every state has its own mother tongue, and Hindi is just one of them. “Use of Marathi, Hindi and English (three languages) should be limited to government and official work. Hindi cannot be made mandatory and one cannot and should not force students to learn it. MNS strongly opposes any such policy and will not tolerate the same,” Raj Thackeray had warned through a social media post (handle X). In fact, estranged nephew of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Raj had mentioned, “We are Hindu, not Hindi. Hence, request the government to keep this in mind before taking the decision ahead for implementation.”
In April, the government issued a Government Resolution which stated that instead of the existing practice of studying two languages, the state made it mandatory to study Hindi as a third language, as part of implementing the new curriculum under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
However, following stiff protest, especially from the MNS, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Marathi study circle, within a few days of issuing the GR, State Education Minister Dada Bhuse clarified that Hindi would be optional and not a compulsory language.
But, now that schools have started, there was confusion among parents, teachers and educational institutes, as leaders from political parties in some places visited educational institute premises asking not to teach Hindi. To clear the ambiguity, the state government on late Tuesday night came out with a revised GR which mentions that the three-language education policy will continue, leaving many people with no choice but to opt for Hindi as the third language.
