New Delhi, April 4 (FN Agency) In an attempt to promote all Indian languages, including Bengali, the Centre allocated a total of Rs 2,367.63 crore in between 2016-21, the government data showed. According to the data issued by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday, an amount of Rs 432.28 crore was allocated in 2016-17, Rs 450.13 crore in 2017-18, Rs 449.47 crore in 2018-19, Rs 561.47 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 474.28 crore in 2020-21. The Minister further said that the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 focuses on promotion of all Indian languages.
“NEP provides, wherever possible, for medium of instruction to be in the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language up to at least Class 5 and preferably up to Class 8. The policy also provides for making available high quality text books in home language/ mother tongue and encouraging teachers to use a bilingual approach while teaching,” added Sarkar. He said in addition to this, it provides for more higher educational institutions (HEI) and more programmes in higher education to use the mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction or offer programmes bilingually, adding that the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru promotes all Indian languages.