3.2% schools in Tamil Nadu offer 3 languages, 37% offer one language, says Union minister

Of 1.4 million Indian schools, at least 61.6% offer three languages, 28.3% provide two languages and 10.1% offer only one language, according to the data shared by education ministry with Lok Sabha on Monday. In Tamil Nadu only 3.2% schools offer three languages.

In the data shared by minister of state (MoS) education Jayant Chaudhary with Lok Sabha: “Out of 1,471,891 Indian schools, at least 61.6% offer three languages, enrolling 74.7% of the 248,045,828 students. At least 28.3% provide two languages, covering 16.8% of students, and 10.1% offer only one language, enrolling 8.5% of the total school students’ population.”

Arunachal Pradesh has lowest 0.3% schools offering three languages, followed by 2.5% schools in Nagaland and 3.2% in Tamil Nadu, according to the data.

Gujarat, with 97.6%, has the highest percentage of schools offering three languages followed by Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh with 97.4% and UT of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu with 96.8%, the data stated.

Chaudhary shared the data from the latest Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) along with the 2023-24 report, in response to questions on the three-language formula asked by Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s MP from Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi Lok Sabha seat.

The minister’s response came amid the ongoing language debate in Tamil Nadu and other southern states regarding the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its three-language formula, which makes it mandatory for every school student to study at least three languages.

NEP allows states, regions, and students to choose three languages, provided at least two are native Indian languages. However, Tamil Nadu follows a two-language system of Tamil and English.

Regional parties in Tamil Nadu have been opposing the three-language formula, raising concerns over the possible imposition of Hindi or Sanskrit under the three-language policy.

According to the data, Tamil Nadu has a total of 58,722 schools and 37% of them offer one language, 59% offer two languages, and only 3.2% offer three languages. Of the total 12,993,050 school students in the state, 31.4% are enrolled in schools offering a single language, 57.8% in two-language schools and 10.8% in schools offering three languages.

In response to questions related to Karunanidhi’s on the teachers in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) in Tamil Nadu, Chaudhary said that a total of 24 teachers are engaged in KVs on a part-time contractual basis to teach Tamil in 45 KVs in Tamil Nadu. “There are 86 Hindi and 65 Sanskrit faculty working in the state of Tamil Nadu at present,” he said.