‘No One in North Is Learning Malayalam or Tamil’: Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor said that the three-language formula was started in mid-1960s but was never implemented efficiently.

File photo of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

(Photo: The Quint)

Following an outrage over a draft education policy favouring teaching Hindi in non-Hindi-speaking states, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday, 2 June said that the solution to the three language formula is not by abandoning the idea but to ensure that its properly implemented, news agency ANI reported.

"The solution is not to abandon the three languages formula but to implement it in a better manner," said Tharoor on being asked to comment on the recent draft of National Education Policy that recommended Hindi as a compulsory language in non-Hindi peaking states as well.

Tharoor further said that the three-language formula was started in mid-1960s but was never implemented efficiently.

“Most of us in South India learn Hindi as a second language but nobody in the North is learning Malayalam and Tamil,” ANI quoted Tharoor as saying.

In the draft of National Education Policy 2019, the three-language formula recommends English and Hindi should be included, besides mother tongue in non-Hindi speaking states. It further recommended the inclusion of English and one Indian language from other parts of the country in Hindi speaking regions.

The draft National Education Policy, 2019 which is available on the HRD Ministry website said that the three-language formula will need to be implemented in its spirit throughout the country, thereby promoting multilingual communicative abilities for a multilingual country.

Schools in Hindi speaking areas should also offer and teach Indian languages from other parts of India, it said.