Isn’t it time to phase out this colonial hangover of English medium education? The British replaced the Sanskrit Gurukuls with the English system as they wanted to weaken India by creating a class of Indians who think like the British
Maria Wirth
There is no doubt that Indian children are intelligent – in all likelihood more intelligent than their western counterparts. An NRI based in Seattle and in Gurugram,Sankrant Sanu, tested the intelligence of Indian and American children via a non-verbal IQ test. Village children (from Haryana) came out on top. They outperformed their peers in Delhi and in the US. In one village over 30 per cent scored over 90 th percentile of the US standard, which means that over 30 out of 100 Indian children were as good as the top 10 out of 100 American children. No doubt extraordinary.
Yet in 2009, India got a severe shock, which should have woken her up, but this wake-up call was not heeded to. For the first time, India took part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Secretariat (OECD). Around half a million
15- year old students from 74 countries were tested for two hours in maths, science and reading skills. Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu students were chosen to take part, as these states were seen as doing well in education.
Language Difficult
When the results were out, there was celebration in Asia. Asian countries were leading the list and had much higher ranks than Europe or USA – with one shocking exception: India came on rank 73 – second last, beating only Kyrgyzstan. It was a great embarrassment. The best Himachal kids were 100 points lower than their average peers in Singapore and 250 points lower than the top performers. Only about 10 per cent of them had average reading comprehension, 90 per cent were below average.
Indian education planners explained that the students faced ‘language difficulty’. The tests were held in the mother tongue of the respective countries: German in Germany, Japanese in Japan, but English in India. Yet there was no introspection.
The results were brushed under the carpet. In 2021 Kendra Vidyalayas are expected to take part – again students in English medium. There is probably the hope that those students will do better, as their parents, being in government service, are likely to speak good English. Yet is this representative for India? Is it not cheating India?
Being German, I know that fluency in English doesn’t come easy. But when I had advocated that Indians should study in their mother tongue, there was always opposition from those fluent in English. They don’t seem to get the difference between studying in English medium and studying English as a subject. Nobody advocates not learning English. But having to read textbooks, question papers, and write essays in a completely alien language is too much for students and the PISA study proved the obvious.
If we need more proof, we only need to look to certain European countries today to realise that students don’t do well if they don’t understand the language. Sweden and Germany had a significant drop in their ranking in the latest PISA test conducted in 2015, and I dare to predict that Germany will drop further in 2018. The reason is simple: even after a year of intensive German language classes for migrant children, these children don’t speak German well enough to be good in their studies. These migrant children at least learn German for one year before they can join the regular classes. In India, children from homes where parents don’t speak any English are put into English medium schools with no preparation whatsoever. This is a disaster. I wonder how this can
be allowed.
Where in the world would children be sent to a school where the teachers speak in a foreign language? Just imagine the plight of the kids. They learn to spell and can read after a while, but they don’t know the meaning of what they read. They will be left in a limbo: later in life, they won’t be good in English, nor in their mother tongue.
Even in the fifth standard, kids cannot form simple English sentences and just stare their textbooks when their parents tell them ‘to study’. Fortunately, India is huge and the majority of people managed to keep their culture and India’s strength alive and their innate intelligence and competence intact. Their children went to schools where mother tongue was the medium of instruction. They understood what they read and could freely express themselves. It would be interesting to find out, how many scientists in ISRO had studied till 12th class in their mother tongue. It may well be the majority.
Untapped Potential
Indians have brains and the world knows it. But in English medium their great potential is not tapped, except for the tiny minority who speak English at home. The great majority of Indian students are at a huge disadvantage compared to students in other countries. It is a huge disadvantage for India.
Isn’t it time to phase out this
colonial hangover of English medium education? It is no secret why the British replaced the Sanskrit Gurukuls with the English system. They wanted to create a class of Indians who think like the British, and in this way weaken India. The argument that English is needed as link language is no argument in favour of English medium. Why can’t Indian students study in the regional language and learn English like
students all over the world do – as a subject? There is a lot of talk about “the right to freedom of expression”. Yet the greatest curb on freedom of expression is ignored. It happens in English medium education all over India. Students cannot say what they want to say, because they lack the vocabulary. Indians have a great advantage here, as their own languages are connected with Sanskrit and it is much easier for them to learn it. Even Sanskrit medium
education would be much easier than English medium and more worthwhile.
If even tiny Denmark and Israel manage to teach higher education in their mother tongue, surely the big Indian states will be capable to
do this.
(The writer is a renowned columnist)
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