Pune: The Maharashtra government’s language advisory committee, chaired by litterateur Laxmikant Deshmukh, has written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis requesting an urgent meeting before the state takes a final decision on the report submitted by the panel headed by Narendra Jadhav on the implementation of the three-language formula.
In the letter sent to the CM on Thursday, the committee urged the state government to hear its views on the proposal to introduce a third language from Class 1. The committee has reiterated that making a third language compulsory from the first standard would be academically unsound and could place an additional burden on students.
According to the committee, it had earlier opposed the proposal to introduce Hindi or any other Indian language from Class 1, arguing that such a move could adversely affect the status and development of Marathi. The committee stated that it had again discussed the issue in its meeting held on February 12, 2026, and unanimously resolved to request a meeting with the chief minister to present its “scientific and educational reasons” against the policy.
The committee emphasised that Maharashtra has been following the Centre’s three-language formula since the 1970s, under which Hindi is taught from Class 5 onwards. It argued that students in the state already attain satisfactory proficiency in Hindi under the existing system and that there is no compelling academic reason to introduce the language from Class 1..
The panel also referred to provisions of the National Education Policy 2020, stating that the policy does not mandate the compulsory imposition of any particular language and emphasises education in the mother tongue in the early years of schooling. Making Hindi compulsory as a third language from the primary stage, the committee said, would therefore be inconsistent with the spirit of the policy.
In its letter, the committee said its delegation wished to explain in person why introducing a third language from the first standard could be detrimental to students’ educational development and to the interests of Marathi.
