The National Education Policy 2020 places mother tongue instruction and multilingualism at the centre of school reform. The intent is sound. Children learn better in a language they understand. But the policy sits uneasily with India’s stratified school system, where the medium of instruction often tracks class, caste, gender, and location.
The long-term risk is clear. Children in regional-medium schools may gain early comprehension but lose ground later, especially when higher education, STEM courses, competitive examinations, and formal employment continue to reward English proficiency. The result is not linguistic justice. It is a delayed disadvantage.
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NEP 2020 and mother tongue instruction
NEP 2020 links language with culture. Chapter 22.4 says language is “inextricably linked to art and culture” and that culture is “encased in our languages”. Chapter 4.11 recommends instruction in the child’s mother tongue, home language, or regional language until at least Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.
The policy’s pedagogical case is also tied to foundational literacy and numeracy. Chapters 2.1 and 2.2 identify weak early learning as a national crisis. Mother tongue instruction can help children build comprehension and confidence in the early years.
But the policy does not adequately confront the later transition. The question is not whether young children learn better in a familiar language. They often do. The question is what happens when a regional-medium child must later compete in an English-heavy system without comparable exposure, support, or institutional preparation.
This is especially serious in STEM education. A late shift to English-medium textbooks, terminology, examinations, and coaching can turn language into an academic barrier. The policy recognises the value of the mother tongue. It does not fully price the cost of delayed English access.
English access and school stratification
Some public institutions, such as Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, offer stronger English-medium instruction. But they are limited and selectively accessible. Many low-cost private schools also claim English-medium status without delivering it.
A 2018 Azim Premji Foundation study found that while 52% of schools were officially reported as English-medium, only 25% used English as the actual medium of instruction. ASER 2022 recorded the learning consequence: only one in four Grade 5 students and about one in two Grade 8 students in rural India could read a simple English sentence. Government school students performed worse than private school students.
NEP 2020 assumes, at least implicitly, that language guidelines can be applied across public and private schools. Chapter 4.11 says both public and private schools should follow these norms. In practice, the policy is advisory. Private schools face neither serious penalties for ignoring mother tongue instruction nor strong incentives to adopt it.
This creates an uneven policy burden. English-medium private schools respond to parental demand. Government and government-aided schools, which enrol a large share of poor and rural children, are more likely to follow state policy direction. The result is selective implementation.
The social pattern is not accidental. Studies based on the 64th and 71st rounds of the National Sample Survey show that Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students have the lowest probability of receiving English-medium education. NAS 2021 data for Grade 10 also shows weaker English performance among SC and ST students in most states compared with general category students.
The language question is therefore not merely pedagogical. It is distributive.
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English as mobility infrastructure
English dominates higher education, private-sector employment, competitive examinations, digital knowledge resources, and international mobility. Research has repeatedly linked English proficiency with better employment prospects and higher wages.
Students in regional-medium government schools already face several disadvantages: limited private coaching, weaker digital access, fewer English-learning materials, and little exposure to English at home. Delayed English exposure compounds these disadvantages.
A government school teacher captured the problem sharply:
“After 10th grade, many of our students don’t choose the Science stream. It is not because they lack potential, but because they fear English due to a weak foundation. Our school is Marathi medium, unlike the nearby private school, which is English medium. One language decides whose dreams get wings and whose get clipped.”
Late linguistic transition can erode confidence, increase academic backlogs, and push students away from science, professional courses, and wider opportunities. The issue is not cultural identity versus English. It is whether the state can protect cultural grounding without denying children access to the language that structures mobility.
Regional language schools and unequal choice
Access to English-medium schooling remains uneven. UDISE+ 2019-20 data, as reported in the media, showed Odisha and Bihar among the states with the lowest shares of students in English-medium schools, at about 9.5% and 10%. Telangana, Kerala, and Punjab had crossed the halfway mark.
The British Council’s 2023 report also pointed to stronger outward education and employment mobility from states such as Telangana, Kerala, and Punjab. Migration and diaspora networks matter. But school-level English access also shapes the ability to pursue IELTS, international scholarships, STEM programmes, and private-sector jobs.
In many villages, the government school is the only accessible school, especially for girls. Fees, distance, transport, and safety concerns narrow the field before “choice” can be exercised. In poorer households, boys are often prioritised for private schooling.
A parent from Maharashtra put it plainly:
“I could send my son to the nearby private English-medium school in the town. My daughter studies in the village Marathi school. I cannot afford private school fees for both. And it is safer for her to study close to home. I feel bad, but I do not have a choice.”
ASER 2024 reflects this pattern. Among rural children aged 7–14, 70.1% of girls were enrolled in government schools, compared with 63.8% of boys. In private schools, the pattern reversed: 27.5% of girls and 34% of boys were enrolled.
English-medium choice is therefore stratified by income, gender, and geography. NEP 2020’s mother tongue framework does not sufficiently address this reality.
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Parental choice and policy contradiction
Government school enrolment has declined from 56.8% in 2014-15, according to a Lok Sabha reply, to about 50% in 2023-24, according to PIB data released in 2025. A key reason is parental demand for private English-medium schooling.
The Azim Premji Foundation study found that among families choosing private schools, 16% cited English medium as the main reason. Among families preferring government schools, only 1% cited it.
This revealed preference sits uneasily with the policy push. In State of Karnataka v. Associated Management of English Medium Primary and Secondary Schools, the Supreme Court held in 2014 that parents have the right to choose the medium of instruction for their children. But a formal right means little when the only nearby or affordable school is a regional-medium government school.
The contradiction is sharper because many public advocates of mother tongue schooling educate their own children in elite English-medium institutions. This is not just hypocrisy. It reveals how India’s education hierarchy actually works. The powerful preserve English access for their children while prescribing linguistic rootedness for the poor.
A bilingual route for NEP 2020
NEP 2020’s mother tongue guidelines need recalibration. The objective should not be to weaken regional languages. Nor should English become the sole marker of quality. But the state must stop treating English as a delayed privilege.
A workable middle path is available. English should be introduced as a compulsory subject from Grade 1 in all public and private schools, while the mother tongue remains the primary medium of instruction through the early and middle years. This should be backed by law, teacher preparation, graded textbooks, assessment reform, and proper monitoring.
Such a bilingual model would preserve cultural and cognitive grounding without postponing English exposure until the gap becomes hard to bridge. For children in public schools, especially girls, SC-ST students, and rural communities, English is not an elite aspiration. It is mobility infrastructure. Policy must treat it as such.
Prashant Vilas Kumbhar is a teaching fellow at Plaksha University and an alumnus of Sciences Po University Paris, Azim Premji University Bangalore, and Ashoka University Delhi.