National Education Policy 2020: A Critical Analysis of Language in Education in India

The advancement of every society depends heavily on education. It is a process that expedites learning, knowledge acquisition, and the development of moral principles and virtue, improving individuals, institutions, countries, and the entire globe. Several issues, such as increased unemployment, a high dropout rate, illiteracy, etc, afflicted the existing educational system. The educational system must change to meet the needs of the people, the country, and the modern world. After 34 years, the National Education Policy 2020 has finally been unveiled in India. It aims to completely transform the system of education, focusing on a multidisciplinary approach, high-quality teaching-learning, and ensuring access to all segments of society, from early childhood to higher education. If we are trying to execute this new education policy, some concerns still need to be addressed. For this purpose, the paper is divided into the following sections: It will first analyse the ‘Three Language formula’ to grasp better the concept, its goal, and some of its criticisms. The paper then discusses the main issues with language in education and the politics around it, the benefits and drawbacks of using one's mother tongue as the primary language of instruction, as well as some essential recommendations for implementing the mother tongue as the primary language of instruction and other suggestions that will aid in adequately implementing the National Education Policy 2020.