Mother Tongue and the Right to Choose the Medium of Instruction in Primary Education: A Constitutional Basis

Abstract

Frequently, parents of children are faced with a difficult question: what should be the medium of instruction for their children in primary education. Should it be the language the child has grown up with or should it be the language the government chooses to teach in a particular state by way of its education policy? In this paper, I will show that the freedom of choice of one’s medium of instruction is implicit in our Constitution and children or their parents and guardians have the right to choose the language of instruction for their children in primary education. Part I deals with the origins of the term mother tongue and the evolution of it’s meaning in the legislative and judicial branches of India. Part II deals with a child or his parent/guardian’s right to choose a medium of instruction. Here, I explore several cases that explicitly and implicitly bring the point forward. In this part, I discuss the latest Supreme Court judgement that recognises this right. In Part III, I deal with the advantages of mother-tongue based medium of instruction, the state of multilingual education in India and the resultant pernicious situation which linguistic minorities face in India.