Language education policy and inequalities of multilingualism in Nepal

This chapter analyzes historical trajectories of Nepal’s language education policies, with a focus on space, status and ideologies of different languages. It deals with an overview of Nepal’s multilingual context, followed by critical analyses of past, present and the future of language education policies. The discourse of language policy and multilingualism has been a critical socio-political issue in Nepal. The 2015 Constitution redefines Nepal’s identity as a ‘multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural’ country. In Nepal’s case, the erasure of linguistic diversity for the promotion of Nepali is shaped largely by the ideology of linguistic nationalism. The commission enforced the use of Nepali in primary schools with an aim to develop it as a ‘true national language’ and force other languages to the verge of extinction. In order to address learning challenges of the children whose mother tongues are other than Nepali, the Ministry of Education developed and implemented a ‘mother tongue-based multilingual education’ program in 2007.