To avoid centralization in education and in accordance with the federal spirit of the Constitution, the West Bengal government has developed the State Education Policy, 2023, which recommends a three-language formula for Classes 5 to 8, with a focus on Bengali.
"The committee also recommends that Bangla [Bengali] be introduced as a subject for students of other mediums of instruction from Class 1 to Class 10." "A suitable curriculum and syllabus may be developed accordingly," one of the policy document's recommendations states.
The education policy, which was released on September 5, is intended to last 13 years.
The document emphasises that the committee consulted various available education policies in preparing the education policy, including reports on NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 and the recently published Report of the Task Force for Implementation of NEP 2020 in Maharashtra and the Report on the NEP 2020 from Kerala.
The three-language formula for students of Classes 5 to 8 lays stress on the mother tongue of the students. “Three-language formula to be introduced in schools for the students of classes 5 to 8 depending upon the availability of infrastructure and resources. It is suggested that the first language (mother tongue) would be the medium of instruction of the school e.g. Nepali in Nepali medium school, Santhali in Santhali medium school, Rajbanshi in Rajbanshi medium school, Bengali in Bangla medium school…” the policy document states.
