Three-Language Formula Row: Delhi-NCR Students Prefer Foreign Languages For Better ‘Employability’ – News18

Last Updated:March 04, 2025, 12:16 IST

Schoolteachers in Delhi-NCR said that even for Punjabi and Urdu, the takers are in minority and, hence, most private schools offer European languages instead of introducing any regional language for better “employability”.

Even as a row has erupted between the BJP-led Centre and DMK-led Tamil Nadu on the ‘three-language formula’ to be adopted in schools across India, a majority of schools in Delhi-NCR and even in neighbouring cities, are teaching English, Hindi and Sanskrit – with a choice between the last two – and a small number of community-run schools that offer Punjabi or Urdu in its place.

While the Centre is committed to implementing the provisions of the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which envisages a ‘three-language formula’, the Tamil Nadu government has been saying that this as an attempt to “impose” Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states.

The Centre has withheld funds under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) – a centrally-funded scheme to support school education – to Tamil Nadu for its resistance to implement the three-language formula, which sparked the debate in the first place. Tamil Nadu has been following a two-language formula — where they teach Tamil and English in schools. It has been opposed to the idea of teaching three languages since the beginning when it was first proposed by the Congress government in 1968.

According to the NEP, “the three languages learned by children will be the choices of the States, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India.”

It also stated that the third language could be a European language, but the first language must be the mother tongue while the second must be a regional language (preferably a modern Indian language).

At least 80-90 per cent of government-run schools in Delhi have English as a mandatory language and then there is a choice in Class 8 to opt between either Hindi or Sanskrit. This choice in some of these government-run schools and other community-run schools is replaced with Punjabi or Urdu.

Most of the private schools, too, give the same choice between the native languages while also offering German, French or Spanish as the third language.

Currently, only around 30 Schools of Specialised Excellence (SoSEs) under the Delhi government offer German as a third language.

Not enough takers or educators

Amid the ongoing language row, schoolteachers said that even for Punjabi and Urdu, the takers are in minority and, hence, most private schools offer European languages instead of introducing any regional language for better “employability”.

AK Jha, principal of a Delhi government school in Rohini, said that Punjabi and Urdu are offered as optional languages in his school, but the takers for the same are few. “Since most are Hindi-speaking in this region, a choice between Hindi and Sanskrit at the middle school level and English have been the languages offered in schools traditionally. Even if a regional language, for example, a southern language is introduced, there won’t be many takers for it. But for other regions since Hindi is the official language of the Union, which was adopted after independence, it can be offered as an option,” he said.

Adding to it, he said, he believed in the three-language formula, which was even suggested by the Kothari Commission (1964-66), a commission set up to review the Indian education system. “I don’t think there should be any kind of opposition to introducing or learning another language. It can be started in phases or as a pilot project in a select number of schools by states,” said Jha.

Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu School, a private school, said that 90 per cent of schools in Delhi and neighbouring regions teach Hindi, English and Sanskrit since there is no one common regional language that exists in this part of the country, with the first two being the most widely used languages for medium of instruction as well as communication.

For a regional language, per se, to be introduced here, it will be a “challenge, both in terms of getting enough takers as well as finding educators”.

“I believe language must not be a barrier. Most parents these days want their children to learn a global language like English or other foreign languages for better employment avenues. At the same time, we must promote regional languages wherever there are enough students willing to take up the said language,” she said.

A teacher from a privately-run school in Delhi, who did not wish to be named, said, over the years, both students and parents have started to look at Hindi and Sanskrit as languages one just has to study up to a level after which it’s just English which they will need for better employability.

“The language debate also needs to look at the larger perception that the parents and students have for the home language. Regional languages need to be promoted for sure, but it may not need to be a rule per se. Instead, it can be done by increasing awareness through different activities that students feel adds value to what they are learning,” she said.

Birth of three-language formula

Kothari Commission was set up as the National Education Commission at the time by the then Congress government. Its recommendations were later accepted as part of the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1968, passed by the Indira Gandhi government.

The first ever commission — University Education Commission – to review the education system was set up right after independence in 1948-49 under Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who later became the second President of India. The commission recommended teaching three languages at the higher secondary level – a regional language, federal language, and English.

It also suggested that at this level, students learn a modern Indian language, preferably a southern language, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking states, and Hindi along with the regional language and English in non-Hindi speaking states.

While the Radhakrishnan commission stated that Hindi would be the federal language, English would be used as an associate official language.

It was this recommendation of teaching three languages that was later accepted as a ‘three-language’ formula by the Kothari Commission and eventually in the NPE, 1968.

This formula was also accepted by the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, passed by the Rajiv Gandhi government, under which schools also started the practice where students of one region would go to another for a duration to get familiar with their language and culture.

However, the NEP 2020, while also envisaging the three-language formula, doesn’t anywhere mention the word Hindi and leaves it to states to decide on which languages to offer, and ultimately on students, on what language they wish to pick of those offered.