ABSTRACT
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 plays a crucial role in reshaping the education system, particularly pedagogical approaches, and curriculum content in India. Its launch has gained substantial attention due to its pronounced emphasis on the usage of mother tongue for foundational skills. This chapter will present the views of school teachers from Delhi, Assam, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Punjab regarding the implications of the use of mother tongue or regional language in English-medium schools. It also presents their views on whether using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction can enhance students’ foundational skills. This chapter will begin by elucidating the significant points on the use of the mother tongue in the NEP 2020. It will also briefly discuss the reasons behind these policy decisions and reforms. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, this chapter will then unveil the nuanced views held by teachers across these diverse linguistic and geographic regions of India. The data analysis reveals three key views of teachers thematised as: linguistic equity-pedagogy nexus, pedagogical deficit and neoliberal-accountability pedagogy. Firstly, the linguistic equity-pedagogy nexus theme highlights the teachers’ views around the impact of policy on educational inequalities and linguistic alienation among linguistic minorities. Secondly, the pedagogical deficit theme provides insights into teachers’ challenges arising from teacher shortages in regional language expertise. Lastly, the neoliberal-accountability pedagogy theme delves into the difficulties teachers face when implementing language policy reforms in teaching, with a particular focus on parental expectations and the prominence of the English language. By the chapter’s conclusion, the readers will gain a profound understanding of the multifaceted interplay between language policy and teacher agency in implementing these reforms as well as their views of the transformative changes required in mother tongue-based education. Finally, the chapter provides readers with a framework that could possibly work in India’s heterogeneous classrooms.
