LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION – LET US ADDRESS THE CONUNDRUM

The Union government’s New Education Policy, released on July 29, 2021 succeeded in resurrecting one of the country’s most common policy conundrums: in which language should Indian children be taught? The NEP’s recommendation that, “wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language/regional language” is an attempt to reignite the pride in our local languages and I fully understand it, but should the local languages be made to thrive at the expense of English language? Why do we have to kill English in order to instill life in regional languages? And, is it wise to do so?

The political class is in the habit of projecting English medium education as a colonial hangover. It shows that because we were subjugated for two centuries by the English our minds have not come to terms with our political independence and that is why we are still fascinated by the English language. If that is so then may I ask why China and Japan are insisting of not only teaching English in their schools but also opening international English medium schools? These countries were never British colonies, so why they have suddenly turned Anglophile? 

 

Benefits of English language education

The fact is that the knowledge of English opens the horizon of the child to a whole new world of rapidly expanding universe of knowledge. English thrives because of its utilitarian value which is of global spectrum. It offers better learning materials for various other subjects like Science, Biology, Medicine, Engineering and Architecture and so parents, who are naturally concerned about the future prospects of their children chase English medium schools.  They consider English to be the best medium of transmission of knowledge and information. It is accepted worldwide and it also tends to develop a confident personality in a child. After all English is the most widely spoken language throughout the world. So if the kids get their primary education in English medium school, their fluency on the English language is surely going to increase, which will help the kids in the future. Their career prospects are better with fluency in English, particularly in multi-national organizations and where technologies invented, reinvented and modernized in foreign shores are in use and their training and updating invariably requires the knowledge of English. English remains the language of international communication, commerce, internet, entertainment and trade and the earlier it is learned the more comfortable the children are in thinking, reading, writing and speaking using the language.

 

Source: The Times of India

Benefits of native language education

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has argued since 1953 that every effort should be made to provide children education in their mother tongue. Mother tongue-based bilingual schooling is seldom disputed on the basis of its pedagogical reasoning. UNESCO’s recommendation that “At least six years of mother tongue education should be provided in ethnically diverse communities to ensure those speaking a different language from the medium of instruction do not fall behind” is accepted the world over and undoubtedly mother tongue is the best place to start a child’s education. This is because teaching a child in a language he/she doesn’t know or speak at home leads to “lecture and rote response” whereas starting a child’s education in the mother tongue “allows teachers and students to interact naturally and negotiate meanings together, creating participatory learning environments that are conducive to cognitive as well as linguistic development.

The affective domain, involving confidence, self-esteem and identity, is strengthened by use of the familiar language i.e. mother tongue in primary school thus increasing motivation and initiative as well as creativity. It allows children to be themselves and develop their personalities as well as their intellects, unlike in English medium classrooms where they are forced to sit silently or repeat mechanically, leading to frustration and ultimately repetition, failure and dropout.

What is most interesting is that when children are initially taught in their native language in primary schools they tend to pick up the second language even better than when primary education is initiated in a non-native language.  An eight-year study on Latin American-origin students in the United States found that students who were taught in primary school using Spanish actually did better at English than Latin American-origin students who were taught in English from the beginning. The more highly developed the first language skills, the better the results in the second language, because language and cognition in the second build on the first.

 

So how to strike a balance?

Science says that a child learns better in his/her mother tongue and aspirational parents in India are running after English medium schools and often paying a fortune to educate their children in them; so how can we formulate an educational policy that will be acceptable to all? At the very outset let us not frame this question of medium of education in a false binary. It should not be English or Regional language / Mother tongue. Both are important, and as we have seen, both are indispensable. Let us start the primary education in the child’s native language and once he/she gains confidence introduce English as the second language. Let us honestly admit that our native languages suffer from inadequacy of learning material as well as shortage of skilled instructors. Our literature of Bengali, Tamil, Taegu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Konkani and Urdu are very rich and can certainly support Primary and Secondary school education, but do we have books of Science, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Medicine, Dentistry and Engineering in these languages that will match their English counterparts? So knowledge of English is indispensible.

All we have to decide is when to start English in schools. I am of the opinion that earlier the better. Children won’t mind if they are repeatedly corrected for their grammatical errors while speaking or writing but when they grow up they may resent, feel embarrassed and rebel. English is a global language and we can fight it at our own peril.

 

Language has nothing to do with religion

Let me make one thing abundantly clear - English is not a language of Christians, Hindi and Sanskrit are not languages of Hindus and Urdu is not a language of Muslims. Languages have nothing to do with religion; they belong to regions where they are spoken. Opposing teaching of language on the basis of religion is both short-sighted and stupid. We cannot harm the language by not teaching it, we end up harming ourselves and our civilization. I am a Bengali, brought up in Lucknow and was taught Urdu till Class VIII. Urdu is the language spoken in Lucknow and I am expected to know it. Urdu is my language, just as Bengali, Hindi and English. Is it not a pity that 30 years later when my sons did their schooling Urdu was nowhere in the curriculum? How can you call yourself a Lucknavi and not know Urdu? 

When the people in the stratosphere of policy making sit once again to reassess our education policy they must De-hyphenate language and religion and introduce Urdu as an optional third language in schools with perhaps other useful foreign languages like Mandarin, Spanish, French and German. The knowledge of an extra language can only help our children to compete better in the global market. And, the knowledge of English is purely aspirational and not a colonial hangover.