National Seminar on Strengthening Multilingual Education Spotlights the Future of Inclusive Learning in India

The Wire

17 hours ago

New Delhi [India], June 30: Language and Learning Foundation (LLF), a leading nonprofit working to strengthen foundational learning in India, recently marked a decade of impact in the education sector. Building on this milestone, LLF hosted the National Seminar on Strengthening Multilingual Education: Insights, Innovation, and the Way Forward at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The seminar brought together education leaders, policymakers, practitioners, and development partners to explore how Multilingual Education (MLE) can drive inclusive and effective learning, particularly for children from diverse linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds. The event underscored LLF's commitment to advancing systemic change in foundational literacy and numeracy through language-responsive teaching practices.
The seminar opened with a compelling address by Dr. Dhir Jhingran, Founder and Executive Director of LLF. Reflecting on LLF's decade-long work in the foundational learning space, he said, 'The most important aspect of a multilingual approach is mindset about children's first languages or local languages. We must support development of a mindset that welcomes and respects children's home languages and supports their active use in classrooms. That is the bottom line - an attitude that recognises these languages not as inferior, but as valuable and worthy of inclusion in education.' Shri Sanjay Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, delivered the keynote address. Emphasising the urgency of mainstreaming MLE, he stated, 'Language gives us identity. It's not just a means of communication—it shapes how we think, feel, and connect. If a child learns one language well, they can learn any language well. That's the strength of multilingualism that our education policy must embrace.' The Guest of Honour, Ms. Prachi Pandey, Joint Secretary (Institutions and Training), Ministry of Education, reinforced the significance of language equity 'India's linguistic diversity is a living symbol of our pluralism. When all languages are treated as equal in the classroom, we nurture not just stronger learning outcomes, but a more inclusive and cohesive society.' The seminar featured a Special Address by Dr. Saadhna Panday, Chief of Education, UNICEF India, who highlighted the need for system-level change 'With all the effort around multilingualism, we compromise quality if it is not well-resourced. Now we have the evidence of what works, we have great commitment from the government, and we've built the momentum with NIPUN 1.0. India has done fantastically with NEP, with NCF, with NIPUN Bharat—really emphasizing the child's home language as the medium of instruction. We need to align these fantastic policies with existing evidence and scale what works.' The Gallery Walk of the MLE Material Exhibition, inaugurated by the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour, offered a vibrant showcase of multilingual teaching-learning resources developed by state governments and education partners. A key highlight was the display of innovative materials created through LLF's ongoing collaborations with states such as Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Rajasthan—demonstrating contextually rich, inclusive tools designed to support foundational learning in diverse linguistic settings.
The technical sessions spotlighted powerful examples of Multilingual Education (MLE) in action, including the Neev – Multilingual Education Programme in Chhattisgarh and initiatives by NCERT and UNICEF. These sessions are transforming early grade classrooms into more inclusive and effective learning spaces.
The seminar concluded with a collective reflection on the way forward, reaffirming a strong commitment to equity-led foundational learning. LLF's vision—'A Strong Foundation, Stronger Future'—was a recurring theme, with calls for stronger policy alignment and increased support from states to scale multilingual education across the country.
About Language and Learning Foundation Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) is a system-focused and impact-driven organisation working at scale towards improving the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) outcomes of children in government primary schools in India.
Foundational skills such as reading with comprehension, writing independently, and doing simple subtraction are gateway skills that must be acquired and mastered for all future learning in schools. The World Bank has estimated more than half the children in India at late primary age cannot read and understand grade-appropriate short sentences, also defined as learning poverty.
Similar findings have been reported by the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). At LLF, we believe that large-scale transformation in the teaching and learning process is required to address this crisis. With the focus on learning at the bottom of the pyramid, LLF works in educationally marginalized areas where children come from families with low literacy levels, deprived social groups, and where home languages are different from school languages.
(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PNN and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.).