West Bengal :- West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has announced that students have the freedom to choose their first language and the state government will not interfere in it.
“A student is free to choose the first language. In Kolkata, you can choose Bengali as the first language. In the Darjeeling hills, you can choose Nepali as the first language if you wish. In certain regions of the state, a student can choose Alchiki or Rajbanshi as the first language. You can also opt for Urdu as the first language,” Basu said.
He also added that the state will not impose Bengali as the second language, and second and third languages will depend on the population pattern and ethnic profile of people living in the particular region. The second and third languages will entirely hinge on the pattern of population and its ethnicity driven by demographic factors,” he said.
As per the West Bengal government’s new education policy, students of classes 5-8 have to learn three languages with Bengali as a priority language, an official told the news agency PTI. “The third language could be a local or regional language as well as a foreign language, but priority can be given to Bengali, Sanskrit or Hindi. The main idea is to teach Bengali to youngsters in West Bengal,” the official was quoted saying by PTI.
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