No textbooks or exams for third language in Class 1 & 2: Edu min | Mumbai News

Mumbai: At the receiving end of criticism after it issued a govt resolution on a three-language policy from Class 1 last week, the state govt in a partial rollback on Thursday said the third language would be taught via the play-way method, only orally, in Class 1 and 2, with no textbooks given to students and no benchmarks such as tests or exams. Instead, a common manual would be provided to teachers to “familiarize” students with that language.After two years of informal education, a further decision will be taken regarding the method of teaching and evaluating the third language from Class 3.School education minister Dada Bhuse said teachers will receive a common manual meant to “familiarize” children with the sounds and rhythms of a new language. There will be no written content, just spoken language—songs, stories, games. The play-way method focuses on learning through play and activities.Though this announcement addresses concerns raised about exams and textbooks for Class 1 and 2 for now, the policy still diverges from the National Curriculum Framework, which has said the third language belongs to the middle school years, not the foundational stage.The opposition and several groups have criticized the govt saying it is trying to impose Hindi as the third language, though govt has said Hindi is not mandatory. After issuing a GR on June 17, the govt took a step back earlier this week by saying it would have wide-ranging consultations before finalizing the policy.Even as govt announced the play-way method, Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant said the policy of making Hindi compulsory was approved during tenure of MVA govt led by Uddhav Thackeray. He said the Mashelkar Committee had recommended mandatory teaching of 3 languages—Marathi, English, and Hindi—from Classes 1 to 12, and the proposal was approved by the cabinet led by Thackeray. Officials said students in Marathi and English medium schools fall short of the 10-credit threshold their Hindi-medium peers and those from other national boards meet because the latter have three languages in curriculum. The present three-language move, officials said, is an attempt to level that field.“Teaching materials are still under development,” said officials. Circulation will be limited only to teachers. For the nearly 8,000 schools with fewer than 20 students, third-language instruction could be beamed in online, they said. -Inputs by Chaitanya Marpakwar