- The issue of medium of instruction in school keeps hitting headlines whenever a prominent personality raises concerns about the regional language taking a backseat citing more prominence being accorded to English. This is despite the necessity to keep English as the primary language in line with global tendencies. Note that societal preferences have undergone alteration and people are aspirational in their quest to remain relevant as the global community advances on the back of mindboggling inventions on the technology front. And English is the true global language, more parents wish to enroll their children in English language medium knowing fully well about the advantages accruing out of the choice opted for.
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- Why anybody should be left behind from the mainstream is the obvious question? Against this backdrop, recent comments emanating from the honorable Vice President of India expressing disapproval of English as a medium of instruction while inaugurating the South Asia Institute of Peace and Reconciliation in Haridwar seems grossly anachronistic and far away from the present-day reality. Of course, he was articulating a widely held view among India’s political class who never walk the talk in following what they preach for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, the problem with this argument is that it frames the issue in a false binary.
- It’s not a case of English versus other Indian languages as both are indispensable. We know English thrives because of a utilitarian value by opening the door to a rapidly expanding universe of knowledge whose production is global in nature. Data on the matter further emphasize the same. Annual data on school children shows that English medium enrolment is growing fast. The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) report of 2019-20 put out granular data on 265 million schoolchildren highlighting about 26% of children in English medium schools, next only to the 42% in Hindi medium. The trend over time shows that the English medium is set to be dominant in the future. To buttress the claim, Haryana and Telangana witnessed the sharpest increase in the relative proportion of children enrolled in English medium schools for five years.
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- Understand that Indian languages have suffered because of an inadequacy of learning material and dictionaries as per the observation of National Education Policy 2020. The problem is compounded by a shortage of skilled instructors too. English medium instruction offers Indian children an opportunity to tap into a vast pool of knowledge to fit easily into global commerce and equip them with a tool to thrive in a knowledge economy. To supplement, a lot more research and development on pedagogical tools need to be done by the Union Government and states. Remember, Indian are uniquely positioned to be multilingual, which has positive cognitive effects. As such, education reforms need clear-headed thinking and not saber-rattling. Therefore, English medium instructions are an advantage that needs to be built on with intent.
