Kota: The state education department of Rajasthan is embarking on a new initiative to expose young learners in government primary schools to the vernacular spectrum of their region. This novel project will incorporate terminology from various Rajasthani dialects into academic materials.

Consequently, pupils will now recognize “camel” as ‘untaad’, “jar” as ‘matko’, “monkey” as ‘bandaro’, “onion” as ‘kanda’, “crow” as ‘kagalo’, “cat” as ‘balli’, and “goat” as ‘chhatthi’.

Madan Dilawar, the state’s education minister, explained that words will be sourced from the Hadoti language, which prevails in the Kota division, as well as from a myriad of other regional tongues including Shekhawati, Mewari, Dhundhari, Gawariya, Marwari, Khairadi, Wangdi, Sansi, Banjara, Motwadi, Devdawati, and Thali.

“We are in the process of selecting and reviewing terms from approximately two dozen local dialects to embed in the educational syllabus,” he noted.

The department is also curating a glossary featuring everyday expressions from the regional languages, providing translations in both their native context and Hindi. To this end, a study has been carried out, and visual aids such as charts have been designed with terms in local dialects and corresponding names for fauna and avifauna. Insights are also being gathered from educators, he added.

The efficacy of teaching in a child’s native tongue has long been established, Dilawar emphasized. “Our administration has already initiated mother tongue instruction in pre-primary and primary stages. Now, learners will engage with prevalent terms from local idioms.”

Criticizing the former Congress-led administration, Dilawar pointed out that although the New Education Policy 2020 was introduced, it failed to embrace teaching in the vernacular. This practice, he stressed, was pioneered by the BJP-led government upon assuming power.