UNESCO makes a strong case for mother-tongue instruction in the country in its annual India education report

The 2025 report provides a comprehensive framework for designing, implementing, and sustaining multilingual education systems. “It emphasises learner-centered language pathways, inclusive pedagogy, community participation, and context-responsive planning — all of which have informed the analysis and recommendations in this year’s report.” “As part of this research, our team travelled across India, including to Odisha, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, and visited schools, institutions and civil society organisations,” he said. This publication is the product of consultations with academicians, state governments, the national government, NGOs, teachers, community members, and — most importantly — students. Recommendations:*Adopt and operationalise clear state-level language-in-education policies grounded in Mother-Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE).*Strengthen teacher recruitment, deployment and professional standards for multilingual competence.*Reform pre-service and in-service teacher education to embed multilingual pedagogy at all stages.*Institutionalise community participation and indigenous knowledge in school practice*Develop and distribute high-quality multilingual learning materials and assessments across grades.*Integrate a gender-responsive MTB-MLE framework across middle, secondary and alternative schooling.*Leverage digital public infrastructure for inclusive, multilingual teacher support and learning resources.*Invest in inclusive language technologies and bridge the digital divide*Ensure sustainable, equitable and inclusive financing for MTB-MLE and language-responsive technologies and*Establish a national mission for MTB-MLE and strengthen institutional co—ordination.



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