Hyderabad:Students in a Class VII mathematics classroom in Warangal participated far more actively when their teacher used Telugu alongside English. The participation saw a rise from 10 per cent to over 70 per cent, according to Unesco’s State of the Education Report for India 2025. The report, ‘Bhasha Matters: State of the Education Report for India 2025 (SOER 2025)’, launched in Telangana on Friday, made a case for teaching children in languages they understood, while also calling for better teacher preparation, multilingual textbooks and greater attention to tribal languages.
School education director Dr E. Naveen Nicolas released the report, authored by Dr Minati Panda, at a programme organised by Unesco in collaboration with the state government. The Warangal findings came from the British Council’s Action Research Mentoring Scheme that was conducted during 2024-25 with academic partners, including NIT Warangal. The Telangana launch also included discussions on recommendations for a proposed state mission for mother tongue-based multilingual education.
Another study by the University of Cambridge and the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, across ten low-cost government schools reported a 30 per cent improvement in reading performance. Students could read English passages, discuss them in different languages and answer questions in Telugu, Dakkhini or English.
The report examined how children’s home languages could improve comprehension and classroom participation, particularly among tribal, rural and minority communities. It also points to shortages of multilingual learning materials, inadequate teacher preparation and difficulties children face when schools use unfamiliar languages.
Telangana has developed 274 textbooks for Classes I to X across eight languages, including bilingual Telugu-English and Urdu-English books. SCERT has also prepared a nine-language digital dictionary, while DIKSHA and T-SAT provide educational resources in multiple languages.
Efforts to preserve tribal languages include storybooks in Lambadi, Gondi and Kolami developed by educator Thodasam Kailas. The report also mentions Adi Vaani, a tribal-language translation platform developed at IIIT Hyderabad.
Dr Nicolas said the recommendations must move beyond policy commitments towards meaningful classroom implementation and called for sustained attention to teacher training, multilingual teaching materials, foundational and vocational skills and inclusive assessments.
The report proposes a national mission for mother-tongue-based multilingual education and greater participation by local communities. Its central argument is that a child’s home language should support learning rather than become a disadvantage in the classroom.
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