Maharashtra makes Hindi mandatory from Class 1 in state board schools under NEP 2020

Rahul Ashok Rekhawar, Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Maharashtra, said on Thursday that the decision was taken by the School Education Department on April 16.

"On behalf of the Maharashtra Government, the School Education Department has taken a decision in which teaching Hindi language along with Marathi and English has been made compulsory from class 1 in all the schools of the state board. This decision has been made with all the appointments and their development in view, and the students will definitely benefit from it," Rekhawar told ANI.

He clarified that the move is solely for educational purposes and not driven by any political or community agenda.

"The department is fully confident about this, and there is no other national or community issue involved in it. Therefore, I thank all the people for helping us implement this decision for the department..." he said.

Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also emphasised the state's commitment to promoting Marathi under the NEP framework.

Speaking at the Mumbai Metro Line 7A tunnel breakthrough event, he reiterated that speaking Marathi is mandatory in the state. "We have already implemented the new education policy... As per the policy, we are attempting that everyone should know Marathi as well as the language of the country," he said.

Fadnavis added that the NEP encourages the use of one common communicable language across India, and Maharashtra has taken proactive steps to promote Marathi.

"With this, the centre ideated this policy so that there would be one communicable language in the country... However, in Maharashtra, we have already decided to make Marathi compulsory. Everyone has to speak Marathi in Maharashtra, but they can learn any other language if they want to," he said.

The statements come amid ongoing discussions about linguistic policies and language use in various states.