Lakshadweep schools to switch from Malayalam to English medium from next year

The order issued by Rakesh Dahiya, director of education, on Tuesday, said that all schools would admit students exclusively under the CBSE English medium stream from Class 1 onwards from the 2024-25 academic year .The the existing students of Class 2 to 8 in the Malayalam medium will also shift to CBSE English medium from next year onwards. As for students of Classes 9 and 10, the shift will be ‘systematically executed’ within a two-year time frame ensuring ‘minimal disruption to ongoing board examinations.’

“This migration is designed to equip students with essential skills and knowledge for their future academic and professional pursuits recognising the substantial role of the CBSE curriculum in preparing students for competitive examinations and 21st century skills,” the order said.

The department said that English, Malayalam and Hindi will be offered in accordance with the guidelines of the New Education Policy. “This approach ensures comprehensive learning of the three languages and alleviates the burden on students, preventing the necessity to learn more than three languages during the school studies,” the education department said.

As of the 2022-23 academic year, there were 51 schools in Lakshadweep with over 8,200 students and 1,021 teachers.

A government school headmaster, who did not want to be identified,said, “This is absolutely wrong. The option of choosing the medium of instruction should be left to the students and the parents. It should not be imposed on them. Moreover, the students currently in Malayalam medium will find it hard to adapt to the CBSE English medium curriculum suddenly next year. The people here have a mostly ordinary social background and may want their kids to be taught in Malayalam. They should be given that right.”