Teaching in Urdu-Medium Schools: A Specific, Under-Attended Challenge
Prof. Nasreen Mirza, Urdu language education researcher, Hyderabad
Urdu-medium schools serve millions of Indian students but receive disproportionately little academic and policy attention, and part of the reason is a specific, checkable fact rather than a vague neglect: Urdu uses the Perso-Arabic script, Nastaliq, an entirely different writing system from the Devanagari script most Indian-language teacher training, materials, and assessment infrastructure is built around. Hindi and Urdu are, as spoken languages, close enough to be considered points on the same Hindustani continuum, differing mainly in vocabulary register and script. But that spoken closeness does not carry over to the classroom, because the script gap means Urdu-medium instruction cannot simply borrow the training and materials built for Devanagari-script languages.
Key facts
- Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq), read right to left, which is structurally unrelated to the Devanagari script used for Hindi, Marathi, and several other major Indian languages. This is a genuine script-level difference, not a dialectal one.
- Hindi and Urdu, as spoken languages, sit close together on what linguists describe as the Hindustani continuum, sharing core grammar and much everyday vocabulary, with Urdu drawing more heavily on Persian and Arabic vocabulary in formal registers and Hindi drawing more on Sanskrit. The spoken closeness is real; it does not resolve the script difference that matters for reading instruction.
- Hyderabad and the wider Telangana region have a long-standing, historically rooted Urdu-medium school tradition, dating to the region’s administrative use of Urdu under earlier governance, and remain one of India’s stronger centres of Urdu-medium education alongside pockets in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal.
- Urdu-medium schools in India have widely reported, documented resource and teacher shortages relative to Hindi- and English-medium schools, and a broader, well-known pattern of declining enrollment over recent decades as families increasingly opt for English-medium schooling for perceived economic mobility, a pattern also affecting many other regional-language-medium schools, not unique to Urdu.
- NEP 2020‘s general multilingual-education principles, mother-tongue or local-language instruction in the foundational years, apply to Urdu-medium schools as they do to any other language-medium school, though this piece cannot verify, without a working search tool this session, exactly how Urdu-specific implementation has proceeded under the policy.
The neglect has a specific mechanism worth naming, not just a general pattern
A shared script means shared infrastructure: teacher training materials, phonics approaches, and reading assessments developed for Devanagari-script languages can be adapted across several of them at once. Urdu’s different script means none of that shared infrastructure transfers automatically, so Urdu-medium schools need materials and training built specifically for them, not adapted from the majority-script system.
This is the specific, checkable version of “disproportionately little attention.” It is not simply that fewer resources exist. It is that much of what does exist for Indian-language literacy instruction was built around Devanagari, and doesn’t transfer to a Perso-Arabic script without deliberate, separate development. A teacher trained in general Indian-language phonics approaches may be working with tools that were never actually built for the script in front of them.
Five principles for teaching in Urdu-medium schools specifically
- Diagnose whether a specific student’s reading difficulty is genuinely about Urdu’s script and right-to-left orientation, or about something that would show up in any language. Treating every reading struggle as generic makes it easy to miss a difficulty specific to Nastaliq’s connected, cursive letterforms, which behave differently from the Devanagari letterforms most shared training materials assume.
- Do not assume Hindi-medium teaching resources transfer, even where the spoken language is close. The Hindustani continuum’s spoken closeness is real, but it does not carry a Devanagari-built phonics or literacy approach across the script gap into Urdu instruction.
- Build sustained, dedicated Urdu-specific teacher training and materials, not adapted general-Indian-language resources. Since the shared infrastructure genuinely does not transfer, this needs deliberate, sustained investment rather than a one-time adaptation exercise.
- Use existing Urdu-medium centres of strength, such as institutions in Hyderabad and Telangana, as resources for materials and trained personnel, rather than each school building instructional approaches independently.
- Start with an honest audit of what your specific school actually has access to, in terms of Urdu-script-specific materials, trained teachers, and assessment tools, since the gap this piece describes is checkable at the school level without waiting for a broader policy response.
Frequently asked questions
Is Urdu really that different from Hindi for teaching purposes, given how similar the spoken languages are? Yes, specifically because of the script. The spoken closeness on the Hindustani continuum is real, but Urdu’s Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq) is structurally unrelated to the Devanagari script used for Hindi, meaning literacy instruction, phonics approaches, and reading materials built for Devanagari do not transfer automatically to Urdu.
Why do Urdu-medium schools receive less attention specifically, rather than just being one of many under-resourced language-medium schools? Part of the reason is the specific infrastructure gap: much shared Indian-language literacy material and training was built around Devanagari, meaning it can be adapted across several Devanagari-script languages at once, while Urdu requires separate, dedicated development that the same shared infrastructure doesn’t provide.
Where in India is Urdu-medium education most established, and can it serve as a model? Hyderabad and the wider Telangana region have a long-standing, historically rooted Urdu-medium tradition and remain a genuine centre of strength, alongside pockets in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal, worth treating as a resource for materials and trained personnel rather than each school starting independently.
What’s the fastest thing a teacher in an Urdu-medium school can check this week? Whether their current materials and training were actually built for Urdu’s script specifically, or adapted from general Indian-language resources built around Devanagari, since that distinction is checkable directly and is the mechanism this piece identifies as most consequential.
What to do:
- Name one child in your class who is most affected by a specific script-related reading difficulty, and write down one specific thing you will try differently for them this week, not a general improvement, but a named action for a named child.
- Search DIKSHA or ask your Block Resource Coordinator for any resource specifically built for Urdu-script literacy instruction in your state context. If nothing exists, note that gap; the absence of a resource is itself useful information.
- Spend five minutes this week observing whether a specific struggling reader’s difficulty looks script-specific, connected Nastaliq letterforms, right-to-left orientation, or something else entirely, not teaching, just watching and noting.
- Tell one colleague about the distinction between Hindi-Urdu spoken closeness and their script-level difference, and discuss whether your school’s current materials actually account for it.
- At the end of the week, ask yourself what you would try differently next week, and what you would look for to know whether it is working.
Note on sourcing: web search was unavailable during this session, so current, specific statistics on Urdu-medium enrollment, staffing, and NEP 2020 implementation could not be verified live. The core claims here (the script-level distinction between Urdu and Hindi, the Hindustani continuum, Hyderabad and Telangana’s historical Urdu-medium tradition, and the general pattern of resource shortages and declining enrollment) reflect well-established, broadly known facts, but a reader preparing this for publication should verify current, specific data before citing precise figures.
Support resources: NIPUN Bharat FLN assessment tools (via your state SCERT or DIET); NCERT teacher guides; Azim Premji Foundation open-access research; DIKSHA platform content in 36 languages; Tele-MANAS mental health helpline: 14416 or 1800-891-4416; CHILDLINE: 1098.
