CHENNAI: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that 22 languages including Tamil will now be the mediums of instruction in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools across the country.

“CBSE has issued a circular in this regard and allowed other languages as the mediums of instruction in their schools. The new mediums of instruction from classes 1 to 12 were added under the provisions of the National Education Policy (NEP) - 2020. A student who reads in his or her mother tongue understands the subject better than Hindi or English. Schools will make provisions for study in these languages and NCERT has also been asked to prepare textbooks accordingly,” Dharmendra Pradhan said in a tweet.

He further said that arrangements will also be made to conduct examinations in these regional languages.

“NEP accords importance to all Indian languages as learning in one’s own mother tongue will enable students to get clarity in any subject,” he added.

Welcoming the move, BJP state president K Annamalai said that this move will usher in original creativity.

“We appreciate the steps taken by the Ministry of Education in replacing foreign languages with our mother tongue languages, thus making education more holistic for children. We are sure this will usher in original creativity. We also take this opportunity to urge the Tamil Nadu government to issue a similar directive to our schools as well,” Annamalai said in a tweet quoting the CBSE’s circular.

Notably, till now, the mediums of instruction in CBSE schools are English and Hindi.