Even as emphasis is being laid on teaching of mother tongue as a subject of study in schools with New Education Policy- NEP 2020, recommending teaching of all subjects in primary classes with the help of mother tongue, the case is different with a significant number of schools here in J&K.
In the backdrop of Parliament enacting the law in 2020 making Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi as official languages in J&K besides English and Urdu, the importance of mother tongue and the demand to introduce mother tongue in all schools is growing stronger with each passing day.
Kashmiri as a subject of study is being taught in all government and private schools of Kashmir valley affiliated with Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education, effectively from 2003. Same is the case with schools in plains of Jammu Division where Dogri is taught as third language but even as two decades have passed, there are still thousands of schools in the hilly districts of Doda, Kishtawar, Ramban and Reasi in Chenab valley as well as in Pir Panchal districts of Rajouri and Poonch where only two languages including English are part of school curriculum. It is the responsibility of School Education Department to identity these schools and initiate measures to introduce any one, as may be the case amongst Kashmiri, Dogri, Gojri, Pahari and Punjabi as third language.
After all tens of thousands of students are enrolled in these schools and they have the basic right to learn their mother tongue in school. The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education has already published text books in all these languages.
To fulfill their commitment towards teaching mother tongue, top private schools like DPS Srinagar, Budgam, Baramulla and Anantnag, all affiliated with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), have come forward and are effectively teaching Kashmiri subject for many years now.
As regards teaching of mother tongue in CBSE affiliated central government schools, the situation is disheartening. There are nine Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and seven Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in Kashmir Division with three new JNVs being established shortly, but mother tongue is not part of curriculum in these schools.
Same is the case with Sainik School Manasbal and Army Boarding school Pahalgam where majority of the students are from local districts. Given that these Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are all Central Government schools running under Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti New Delhi, there can not be a different set of rules for such schools in J&K and in other states. If KVs in Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Telenghana can teach regional languages as third language in addition to Hindi and English why can’t Kashmiri or Dogri be taught as third language in KVs and JNVs of J&K?
Talking about teaching of mother tongue in secondary classes, in June 2017, School Education Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir notified Kashmiri and Dogri as compulsory subjects for 9th and 10th class but nothing till date has been done to execute the decision.
There are 788 hundred Higher Secondary Schools in J&K but the number of schools offering Kashmiri, Dogri and Punjabi as elective subjects at 10+2 level is highly disappointing. Out of 378 Higher Secondary Schools in Kashmir valley alone, some eight to nine institutions offer Kashmiri as an elective subject in 11th and 12th classes which presents a very grim scenario.
Let us commit ourselves to efforts needed both at individual and collective level for nurturing our mother tongue. Be it making mother tongue part of school curriculum or encouraging kids to talk in it, let us be assiduous to give our mother tongue the place it deserves in our daily lives.
Our culture is in existence for over four thousand years and therefore the knowledge and wisdom gained through continuous interactions with nature all along, this long journey remains hidden in our mother tongue and keeps on cascading from generation to generation. Collectively it is our moral responsibility to ensure that this wealth of wisdom is inherited by future generations with the help of our mother tongue.