Stressing that need for increasing use of Hindi in schools, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik has said that teaching should be done in “mother tongue” till the secondary level of education. “The knowledge of English is, no doubt, useful. But it cannot be a ‘vikalp’ (substitute) for ‘matrbhasha’ (mother tongue),'” Mr. Naik said.
“I think that the mother tongue, be it Hindi or any other vernacular language, should be the medium of instruction at least up to the secondary level. Students tend to learn better when they study in their mother tongue. This I know from my own experience. I had done my schooling through the Marathi medium,” the Governor told journalists after attending a function at Allahabad University on Tuesday.
Mr. Naik also resented growing use of colloquial and grammatically incorrect English among the younger generation and asked teachers and scholars to take corrective measures. He stressed that purity of a language should be maintained and that students should be careful while trying to learn any language.
