Why in news?

• The Department of School Education & Literacy has initiated Bhasha Sangam Programme to provide multilingual exposure to students in Indian Languages.

Bhasha Sangam Programme:

• The Bhasha Sangam is an initiative under the ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ which aims to make the students aware about the unique cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity of our country.
• In order to celebrate the unique characteristic of our country, Bhasha Sangam provides an opportunity to schools and educational institution to provide multilingual exposure to students in Indian Languages.
• The objective is to familiarize every child with simple dialogues in all the 22 languages under Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India.
• They will be taking up one language on each working day, to enhance linguistic tolerance and promote national integration.
• The initiative has been widely received and accepted by States and UTs in very positive manner and schools are introducing five simple and commonly used sentences as per the convenience of students.

Lingual provisions:

• Section 29(2)(F) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 states that “medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in child’s mother tongue”.
• The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 emphasises the importance of imparting primary education in the mother tongue of the child.
• Since education is in the Concurrent List, States have the liberty to decide the medium of instruction in schools.

Three Language Formula:

• The NCF also states that the ‘Three Language Formula’ is an attempt to address the challenges and opportunities of the linguistic situation in India.
• As per the ‘Three Language Formula’ the first language to be studied, must be the mother tongue or the regional language.
• In the case of Hindi speaking States, children learn a language not spoken in their area.
• Sanskrit may also be studied as a modern Indian language in addition to these languages.