The Centre has said it has initiated a Scheme for the Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today, Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said the Mysuru based Central Institute of India Languages is working on the protection, preservation and documentation of all Indian languages which are spoken by less than ten thousand people. He said the scheme at present covers 117 languages.<br />''<br />''Mr Dharmendra Pradhan also said, the National Policy of Education, 2020, provides for the medium of instruction to be in the mother tongue or the local language wherever possible, at least up to 5th standard and preferably up to 8th class.<br />''<br />''In addition, the minister said the National Education Policy provides for higher educational institutes and more programmes in higher education to use mother tongues or local languages as the medium of instruction or to offer the programmes bilingually. <br />