Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, March 4
Fulfilling its promise in the assembly elections manifesto, the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar announced local languages and mother tongue would be the mode of teaching in primary and middle schools in Bihar.
State’s education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhury said it would be a true tribute to the noted Hindi scholar Phaniswhar Nath Renu who promoted regional languages and dialects in his writings, including Parti Partikatha on which the Rajkumar-Waheeda Rehman starring film Teesri Kasam was made in the 70s.
He said the government had decided to make local languages and dialects like Magahi, Maithili, Bhojpuri as medium of instruction from the coming academic session. He claimed teachings in local languages would help the students learn better in their mother tongue, necessary instructions had been given to the regional directors of education.
Minister said teachers having proficiency in local languages would be posted in the area specific schools to teach students in their mother tongue. There are 72000 government schools in the state.
This year, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili would be the medium of instruction, but later teachings would be started in Vajjika and Angika also. Angika is a recognised subject in Bhagalpur university since 1994 and there is a university department also in the language spoken in over a dozen districts of Bhagalpur, Munger and Purnia divisions.
Magahi is the popular mother tongue in the central Bihar districts of Patna, Gaya, Jahanabad, Arwal, Nawada and Nalanda districts, while Bhojpuri is spoken in several districts of Saran division, including Siwan, Chapra, Gopalganj, East and West Champaran and four districts of Shahabad region-Bhojopuri, Buxar, Kaimur and Rohtas.
Maithili is the only lanuguage spoken in the entire Mithula region of North Bihar, including Darbhanga and Tirhut divisions, like Darbhanga, Saharasa, Supaul, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Samastipur.
BJP in its manifesto had promised making Hindi as medium of instruction in the technical institutions too.
To make up for the loss of session during the Corona period, the government has decided to introduce a three months Catch up course for the school students, he said. Government will give free uniforms and cycles to all students, irrespective of their attendance percentage. Earlier, the facility was restricted to only those students who have 75 per cent attendance.
