The multilingual policy in Maharashtra’s primary schools has been revoked. The state is currently governed by the National Democratic Alliance led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. In that state, the implementation of the multilingual policy in Marathi and English medium schools for grades 1 to 5 was initiated last April.According to this policy, Hindi will be taught as the third compulsory language in primary schools. This decision faced strong opposition from various parties and organizations, including the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, and the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar. Following this backlash, the government order was suspended. On the 17th of last month, the Maharashtra government issued a notification regarding the implementation of a policy. Accordingly, it has been announced that Hindi will be taught as a subject from grades 1 to 5. However, the notification specifies that 20 percent of students in the designated grades may opt for another regional language instead of Hindi. This has raised significant concerns among various stakeholders. In relation to this matter, Chief Minister Fadnavis stated the day before yesterday that the notifications issued in April and June regarding the implementation of the trilingual policy for grades 1 to 5 are being withdrawn.
