Dr Manasvi M Kamat
Though our country’s own Hindi language is being subject of ridicule and resistance in the Southern States of India, it is the English that is receiving a closer embrace. The Andhra Pradesh (AP) government has issued an order on Wednesday last week, stating that it will introduce English as a medium of instruction (MoI) in all government schools from the next academic year onwards.
The Mr Jagmohan Reddy-led State of AP plans to introduce the “global tongue” by converting the existing Telugu medium classes from I to VI into English medium from the academic year 2020-21; while students are expected to pick one of the two local languages, Telugu or Urdu, as compulsory subjects. The other classes will shift to English gradually it is said.
Earlier in October 2018 the other Southern State of India in Karnataka, Mr Kumaraswamy-led government made a decisive intervention to introduce English as a MoI in State government schools. Similar was the case in Goa State. As per the education department’s policy in Goa before 2012, schools with English as MoI which included several privately-run educational institutions and other schools run by the churches in Goa were not entitled to government funding. This decision was later reversed by the then Mr Kamat-led government leading to a mass agitation in the State leading to change in political batons.
The decisions of the State governments to decisively bring English to compete with the regional tongue has given rise a lot of debate and dissent among the political parties, the intellectuals and the academia. Those against the introduction of English as MoI argue that this would make students forget their mother tongue and, hence not desirable while on the other side the proponents claim that when the preferred medium happens to be English in private schools it may not be prudent to deny the choice to the students choosing government schools.
It is an irony that the State of AP which in the past had sought unflinching primacy to the regional tongue and was the first State to demand bifurcation of States on linguistic grounds ‘orders’ that English will now principally mediate the exposure of the child to early learning. The local languages in AP will only be confined to gently adding colour to the process. The State has reportedly based this decision on the inputs taken from the Committee of Academia constituted to revamp the entire education system in the State.
The basic contention for this massive switch-over is the reported argument to empower the children from the underprivileged sections with skills required to survive in the competitive world. Currently, about 98.5 per cent children study in private schools and have opted for English medium while about 11 lakh children study in government-aided and municipal schools functioning in English medium. The remaining 30 lakh children study in government schools primarily in rural areas have no other choice than to study in Telugu medium.
In AP more than 90 per cent of the students from government schools are SC/ST/OBC and minority communities. Similarly among the private and government-aided school children, 39 per cent of ST students and 49 per cent of SCs study in English medium schools while the figure for the upper caste is 82 per cent. The AP government thus claims of being fair by creating a level playing field for all classes of the society. ‘Since the children of those who can afford study in English medium the responsibility of protecting Telugu language and culture can’t be left on the children of the downtrodden and rural parents is the argument posed to the critics.
In spite of the growing debates that following English is a false allure, the local response to the new policy by AP government has been overwhelming. The assumption is that English has the power to pull the backward out of their backwardness and has the ability to make students ‘global job-ready’. The ‘global language’ is seen to be as less threatening with regard to racial and ethnic dominance, more promising of an economic future and embedded with an egalitarian intent.
The Dalit organisations in the State seem to be convinced to support the move. They have also resolved to launch a State-wide campaign to strengthen the hands of the government on this count. The government has reiterated that it will not stop with Classes I-VI, but in the next academic year will begin the introduction of English medium from Classes VII-X. The district education authorities are enabled to grant permission to schools that want to convert Classes VIII to X from Telugu to English medium.
The AP government has geared for the change with MoUs being signed with language universities and institutes to train their nearly 98,000 teachers. The State is setting up language labs in schools with help from Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) to train the teachers. Over 60,000 teachers are scheduled to undergo skill development training from January and be ready to take classes from June 2021.
Academic wisdom and lessons from developed countries suggest that it is not necessary to use English as MoI to impart ‘English language proficiency’ in students. Developed countries like China, Japan, Italy, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, France, Israel and Germany have always batted for their mother tongue rather than English and primary education is undertaken in the same language.
The UNESCO, an arm of United Nations Organization (UNO) in its two reports titled Enhancing Learning of Children from Diverse back grounds, and The Impact of Language Policy and Practice on Children’s Learning: Evidence from Eastern and Southern Africa has conclusively stated that without the strong foundations of one’s own mother tongue, it is impossible to learn any other language. Thus the requirement of developing spoken/written English competency can be imparted without imposing English as a MoI.
Thus, though there ought to be no two opinions on the need for teaching English as a language, it is the compulsion of ‘teaching in English’ that is questionable in AP. Though the intent is not questionable, the action certainly is.
