School and community; medium of instruction and the…

Core facts

School and community

Word: community = Latin "com" (together) + "munis" (to serve), so "to serve together".
Definitions: Ogburn and Nimkoff: the total organisation of social life within a limited area. R.M. MacIver: an area of social living marked by some degree of social coherence. The term goes back to Aristotle, who called man a social animal (2022 key: Aristotle defined the term "community").
Characteristics of a community (textbook): a definite area and population; a group of human beings; we-feeling; co-operation; common heritage; service institutions. A written constitution or sovereignty is not one of them (that is a State).
Educational functions of the community (textbook): providing education; universal free and compulsory education for 6 to 14; framing aims; control over education; building the curriculum; equal opportunity for all; vocational and industrial education.
Functions of the school include education of the parents (helping homes support the child's growth) and co-ordinating the other agencies (family, State, community).
The family is the child's first school; the school is a special environment built by society, "a small society" (Dewey: school as an "embryonic community", The School and Society, 1899).
Community school: a school that uses the community as a learning resource and serves it in return (adult classes, health and cultural programmes). Idea linked to Dewey, Gandhi (basic education, Wardha 1937) and the Kothari Commission.
Kothari Commission (1964-66): common school system of public education and the neighbourhood school (all children of a locality, rich or poor, attend the local school); work experience and social/national service to link school with community.
NPE 1986 / POA 1992: the community is a fundamental requirement for improving the system and for a framework of accountability at each level of administration (2022 key); decentralised management; Village Education Committees (VECs).
73rd and 74th Amendments (1992): education items (primary and secondary schools, adult and non-formal education, libraries) placed in the 11th Schedule (panchayats). In practice panchayats' role has mostly stayed limited to building, repairing and maintaining school buildings (textbook).
Telugu States' community drives for enrolment: Badi Bata and Chaduvula Panduga (festivals of education); Assam's Alokar Jatra (household survey).
RTE Act 2009, Section 21: a School Management Committee (SMC) in every government, local-body and aided school (not in unaided private schools).
- At least three-fourths of members are parents or guardians; proportionate place for parents of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections; 50% of members women; rest are local-authority representatives, teachers and others.
- Section 22: the SMC prepares the School Development Plan. Functions: monitor the school's working, monitor use of grants, watch enrolment and attendance.
- Neighbourhood norm (RTE model rules): a primary school within 1 km walking distance; upper primary within 3 km.
Secondary level: School Management and Development Committee (SMDC) under RMSA (2009).
Other links: Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), Mother-Teacher Association, alumni, mid-day meal (now PM POSHAN, 2021), Vidyanjali school volunteer programme (2016; portal relaunched as Vidyanjali 2.0 in 2021), NSS (1969) at college level; voluntary bodies such as Rotary Club, Lions Club and Red Cross.
2025 HWO keys: main barrier to school-community relations = lack of trust and transparency; best way to start a relationship = parent-teacher meetings and community events; best place for a school = a locality safe for students.

Medium of instruction

UNESCO (1953), The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education: the best medium for teaching a child is the mother tongue. Since then UNESCO has urged mother-tongue education (2022 key).
International Mother Language Day: 21 February (declared by UNESCO 1999, observed from 2000).
Children should learn in their own language for at least six years before a second language becomes the main medium (textbook).
An unfamiliar medium is a double barrier: the barrier of language and the barrier of concept.
Article 29(1): any section of citizens with a distinct language, script or culture has the right to conserve it. Article 30(1): linguistic and religious minorities may set up and run their own educational institutions.
Article 350A (7th Amendment, 1956): facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage for children of linguistic minorities. Article 350B: Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, appointed by the President.
Eighth Schedule: 22 languages today (14 in 1950). Article 343: Hindi in Devanagari is the official language of the Union. Article 351: Union's duty to spread Hindi as a medium of expression of India's composite culture.
Census 2011: 121 languages (22 scheduled + 99 non-scheduled); 1,369 rationalised mother tongues. Textbook: India has 4 language families.
RTE Act 2009, Section 29(2)(f): medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be the child's mother tongue.
NEP 2020 (para 4.11): wherever possible, the medium until at least Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, should be the home language / mother tongue / local or regional language (2025 key: "the mother tongue").
Telugu: AP Official Language Act 1966; declared a classical language in 2008.

Three-language formula

First recommended by the University Education Commission (Radhakrishnan), 1948-49 (2022 key): regional language, the federal language (Hindi) and English at the higher secondary and university stages.
Secondary Education Commission (A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar), 1952-53: mother tongue or regional language as the medium throughout the secondary stage; at least two languages at middle and high school.
CABE (1956) devised the three-language formula for school education; the Chief Ministers' Conference (1961) approved a simplified version.
Kothari Commission (1964-66): the modified / graduated three-language formula; regional languages to become the medium at the university stage over time.
NPE 1968: adopted it; reaffirmed (not dropped) in NPE 1986 and POA 1992.
Basis (textbook): the right of minorities to instruction in their mother tongue, and the State's official language as the main regional language.
NEP 2020 (para 4.13): formula continues with more flexibility; no language imposed on any state; at least two of the three must be native to India; aim: multilingualism and national unity (2022 key).

Explained

1. What the school gives the community, and what it takes.

School to community	Community to school
Adult literacy and evening classes	Land, buildings, money, materials
Health, hygiene and sanitation drives	Local knowledge, crafts and resource persons
Cultural events, library, playground use	Volunteer teaching, mentoring (Vidyanjali)
Surveys, awareness on social issues	Monitoring through SMCs and PTAs
Leadership training through NSS, scouts	Help with enrolment and attendance

Ways to build the link: parent-teacher meetings, open days, school annual day with parents, home visits, community surveys by pupils, using local experts, field trips, and making the school building a community centre after hours.
Barriers: mistrust, a closed or bureaucratic school, parents' illiteracy or poverty, caste and political divisions, teachers living away from the village, and one-way communication (only notices and fines). Regular home visits by teachers are a remedy, not a barrier.
A welfare hostel is part of this picture: the warden works with parents, the SMC of the attached school and local leaders on attendance, health and safety.

2. Parent and community support (textbook, for the Telugu States).

Five categories: children come to school ready to learn; the community gives money and materials; frequent school-parent-community communication; a real role in school governance; parents and community help with instruction.
Joyce Epstein's six types of school-family-community involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, collaborating with the community.
PTA: parents have the first right to know the programme followed for their child; their suggestions are useful inputs, not interference; meetings should be frequent. Main purpose of a parent-teacher meeting: share the child's progress and plan support together.
Community resource persons: local experts (craftsmen, doctors, farmers, officials, elders) who talk, demonstrate, mentor or judge projects. Using community resources is a standard practical activity in teacher training.

3. Degrees and types of community participation.

Degrees (lowest to highest): mere use of a service; contribution of money, materials or labour; attendance at meetings (passive acceptance of decisions made by others); participation in delivery; implementing delegated powers; real decision-making at every stage (highest).

Type	Who decides	Example
Passive	outsiders; people are only told what will happen	head announces new timings, takes no questions
By consultation	outsiders define problems and solutions; they listen but keep decisions	officials hear parents, then decide alone
In information	people only answer surveys, never see the findings	filling a questionnaire
Collaborative	joint analysis and action from diagnosis to evaluation; participation as a right	agency and village plan together
Self-mobilisation	the community acts on its own initiative, keeps control of resources	villagers build a library, ask officials only for advice

The textbook's summary adds contractual participation (a formal arrangement).

4. Community-based education. Links school learning to local institutions, history, heritage and environment; also called community-based learning or place-based education. Using the community as a classroom helps pupils apply learning in real settings, remember it longer and prepare for adult life. Four approaches:

Approach	What happens	Example
Instructional connections	lessons use local examples	averages from the local cricket team's scores
Community integration	local experts come into the school	a doctor talks on seasonal fevers
Community participation	pupils learn in the community	interning at a dairy co-operative
Citizen action	pupils give back to or change the community	the fullest, most "authentic" form

5. The case for mother-tongue instruction.

The child thinks in the home language; concepts are grasped faster and more deeply. Children learn a second language better after first being educated in their own.
Lowers the home-school gap, so fewer drop-outs (link to wastage and stagnation); an unfamiliar medium causes low self-image and low achievement.
Builds self-confidence, creativity and expression; links learning with local culture. D.P. Pattanayak: mother-tongue education gives self-affirmation, group identity and cultural rootedness. Rejecting a child's home language is rejecting her culture and identity.
Language barriers hit girls harder: they get less exposure to other languages outside the home.
Jim Cummins: BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills: playground talk) comes quickly; CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency: textbook language) takes years. A child fluent in playground English may still fail the English science textbook.
Language across the curriculum: every subject class is also a language class, since each subject has its own terms and register. The textbook regrets that language teaching has stayed limited to the four skills LSRW (listening, speaking, reading, writing).
Problems: many mother tongues (tribal and minority languages without scripts or books; textbook: about 80% of India's languages are endangered, and only a few of the many languages are used as media), shortage of teachers and materials, migrant children, parental demand for English for jobs (not an advantage of mother-tongue teaching: "ready access to international jobs").
History: Macaulay's Minute (1835) favoured English; Wood's Despatch (1854) used vernaculars at lower levels and English at higher; Hunter Commission (1882) wanted primary education through the vernacular; Gandhi's basic education (1937) used the mother tongue.

6. The Kothari (graduated) formula, stage by stage.

Stage	Languages
Lower primary (I-IV)	One: mother tongue or regional language
Higher primary (V-VII)	Two: mother tongue/regional + Hindi or English
Lower secondary (VIII-X)	Three (compulsory)
Higher secondary	Two (any combination)

The three: (1) mother tongue or regional language; (2) official language of the Union (Hindi) or the associate official language (English); (3) a modern Indian or foreign language not taken as (1) or (2) and not the medium.
NPE 1968 wording: in Hindi-speaking states, Hindi, English and a modern Indian language, preferably a southern language; in non-Hindi states (such as AP), the regional language, Hindi and English.
Order of starting (textbook): first language from Class I; second from Class VI (or earlier, from Class III); third from Class VI; the present trend is English as a subject from Class I.

7. Why the formula was hard to implement (POA 1992 review).

Languages were not taught well at the secondary stage.
Some states taught a classical language (such as Sanskrit) in place of a modern Indian language.
Hindi states made no real provision for South Indian languages.
The duration of compulsory language study varied from state to state, and competency levels were not fixed.
Other difficulties: load on pupils, shortage of language teachers, opposition to Hindi in some states, low motivation for a third language.

8. NEP 2020 on language (paras 4.11-4.22), in short.

Mother tongue as medium at least to Grade 5; bilingual teaching-learning materials; high-quality textbooks in home languages.
Three languages chosen by states, regions and students; two must be Indian. A student may change one or more of the three in Grade 6 or 7, if proficiency in three (one at literature level) is shown by the end of secondary school.
Sanskrit offered as an option at all levels; classical languages and Indian Sign Language promoted.

AP angle

Andhra State (1 October 1953) was the first state formed on a linguistic basis, after Potti Sriramulu's fast (1952); it led to the States Reorganisation Commission (Fazl Ali, 1953-55).
Medium of instruction in government schools (2019-2020): AP ordered (November 2019) a move of government schools to English medium from 2020-21; the AP High Court set aside the orders in April 2020 and the state appealed to the Supreme Court. The state then introduced bilingual (English-Telugu) textbooks in government schools. Policy details may change; check current orders.
Community role in schools: under Mana Badi Nadu-Nedu (2019), school infrastructure works were carried out through each school's parents' committee (the RTE SMC) on a community-participation model; Badi Bata enrolment drives run each June.

Common traps

✗ "The three-language formula was first recommended by the Kothari Commission." ✓ First by the Radhakrishnan (University Education) Commission, 1948-49; CABE 1956 devised the school formula; Kothari modified it; NPE 1968 adopted it.
✗ "The Radhakrishnan Commission sat in 1947-48." ✓ 1948-49 (appointed November 1948, report 1949).
✗ "NPE 1986 abandoned the three-language formula." ✓ It reaffirmed it, as did POA 1992.
✗ "NEP 2020: mother tongue as medium until Grade 8 compulsorily." ✓ At least until Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, wherever possible.
✗ "NEP 2020 makes Hindi compulsory." ✓ No language is imposed; at least two of the three must be Indian languages.
✗ "UNICEF (1953) recommended mother-tongue education." ✓ UNESCO, 1953.
✗ "Article 350B gives mother-tongue instruction." ✓ 350A = mother-tongue instruction at primary stage; 350B = Special Officer for linguistic minorities; 29(1) = right to conserve a language, script or culture; 30(1) = minorities' own institutions.
✗ "RTE SMC: half the members are parents." ✓ At least three-fourths are parents or guardians; half the members are women; no SMC in unaided private schools.
✗ "In passive participation the community decides." ✓ Passive = people are told; consultation = outsiders listen but decide; self-mobilisation = community acts on its own; the highest degree is real decision-making at every stage.
✗ "Best place for a school: a central, easily reached site" as the 2025 answer. ✓ The older textbook rule is a central, easily reached place away from noise and pollution; the 2025 HWO key answered "a locality safe for students". When safety is an option, mark safety; the two rules do not clash.
✗ "The family is the second school after the school." ✓ The family is the child's first school.
✗ "Community comes from 'com' + 'munis' = to live together." ✓ To serve together.

Quick revision

Community = "to serve together"; Ogburn-Nimkoff, MacIver; Aristotle defined it (2022).
NPE 1986: community for accountability at each level of administration.
Participation: passive, consultation, information, collaborative, self-mobilisation; citizen action = most authentic.
RTE Sec 21: SMC (3/4 parents, 50% women); Sec 22: School Development Plan; Sec 29(2)(f) mother tongue.
2025 keys: barrier = lack of trust; start = PTA meetings and events; school site = safe locality.
UNESCO 1953: mother tongue is the best medium; Mother Language Day 21 Feb.
Article 350A: mother tongue at primary stage; 350B Special Officer; 29(1) conserve language.
Three languages: first Radhakrishnan 1948-49; CABE 1956; CMs' Conference 1961; Kothari graduated; NPE 1968.
NEP 2020: mother tongue at least to Grade 5; two of three Indian; multilingualism and national unity.
Cummins: BICS vs CALP; double barrier of language and concept.

Go deeper: Deeper (beyond what APPSC Paper I usually asks)

Deeper Advanced

Why the formula met resistance. Hindi-speaking states rarely taught a southern language in practice, so non-Hindi states saw the burden as one-sided; Tamil Nadu follows a two-language policy (Tamil and English) since 1968. The 1965 anti-Hindi agitation shaped this. The debate returned with NEP 2020.
Bilingual and multilingual education. Research associated with Jim Cummins argues that skills built in the first language transfer to the second (common underlying proficiency), so early English-only schooling for children who do not speak English at home slows learning. NCF 2005 called multilingualism a resource and the classroom a place to use children's home languages.
English medium demand. Parents see English as the route to jobs; low-fee private English-medium schools grew fast after the 1990s. Policy answer: mother-tongue or bilingual medium with strong English as a subject.
Community participation, critically. SMCs often exist on paper; members need training, real powers over funds and information. Participation breaks the "mentality of dependence" only when it moves up from passive to collaborative. Decentralisation works where local bodies are strong (Kerala's panchayats in the 1990s are a common example).
Book error to note. The B.Ed. text quotes the right to conserve a distinct language, script or culture as Article 26(1); it is Article 29(1).

Medha AI writes its own notes and checks them against the sources listed. Medha AI is an independent preparation service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to APPSC, TSPSC, MPSC, UPSC or any other commission or government body.

9.1.1 School and community; medium of instruction and the three-language formula

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