Annexure 2: Educational languages

According to the report of the third all India education survey, titled languages and media of instruction in Indian schools by M G Chaturvedi and Satvir Singh (New Delhi, National Council of Education Research and Training, 1981), 58 languages of five different families, representing varying degrees of literary cultivation and use are studied in Indian schools. Of these, 21 are studied in the various states and Union Territories as first, second and third languages and some of them are also used as media of instruction: 1) Arabic, 2) Assamese, 3) Bengali, 4) English, 5) French 6) Gujarati 7) Hindi, 8)Kannada, 9) Khasi, 10) Konkani, 11) Malayalam, 12) Manipuri, 13) Marathi, 14) Mizo 15) Oriya 16) Persian, 17) Punjabi, 18) Sanskrit 19) Tamil 20) Telugu, and 21) Urdu. All these languages are well cultivated literary languages with the exception of Khasi and Mizo. Most of them are also recognised official languages.

Another 11 languages are studied either as first and second languages or second and third languages which are also media of instruction 1) Angami, 2) Ao, 3) Chokri, 4) Garo, 5) Karen, 6) Konyak 7) Lotha, 8) Nepali, 9) Sema 10) Sindhi, and 11) Tibetan. Almost all these languages with the exception of Nepali, Sindhi and Tibetan are tribal languages cultivated recently for educational purposes.

The remaining 26 languages are studied in one or two forms only and most of them are no media of instruction at any stage of school education 1) Bodhi 2) Bodo 3) Chakma, 4) Chang, 5) Dogri, 6) German 7) Himar, 8) Kashmir 9) Khezha, 10) Khiemnuger, 11) Kuki, 12) Lai 13) Lakher, 14) Latin, 15) Nicobaree, 16) Pali, 17) Pawi, 18)Phom 19) Portugese, 20) Rengma 21) Sangatam, 22) Snthali, 23) Syriac, 24) Tripuri, 25) Yimchunger and 26) Zeliang.