English has
become the common language of the global market. those not taught the
language are denied the opportunities that richer students in English
medium schools have
 |
| Kancha
Ilaiah |
The school education
system in India is squarely divided into two structures in terms of
the medium of instruction—the regional language system and the
English language system. In terms of population, regional language school
education is meant for Dalit-Bahujan children, while English language
school education is meant for the rich who constitute by and large the
upper castes. This division also resembles that between government and
private convent English medium school education. Although the Central
government does run a few English medium schools like the Kendriya Vidyalayas
and some state governments like Andhra Pradesh run a few residential
English medium schools, the basic divide is clear. The Central schools
basically cater to the upper castes and the employees of the government
sector. Even though the children of a few reserved category employees
benefit from these schools, the divide between the English medium schools
and the regional language schools is a caste-class divide. India needs
to change this divide almost immediately. The question is how?
The divide itself
was created by the hypocritical nationalistic agenda of upper caste
intellectuals for their own caste-class advantage. Right from the days
of the freedom struggle, the upper caste intelligentsia argued that
the British — particularly Lord Thomas Macaulay — introduced
English education to transform Hindus into clerks and slaves and to
transform Hindu culture (through language) into English culture. They
quote Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education, which said:
 |
K.
Satheesh |
| |
The English-Hindi
divide was created by the hypocritical nationalist agenda of the
upper castes for their own benefit |
“It is impossible
for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the
people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters
between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian
in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and
in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular
dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science
borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees
fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
The Indian upper
castes, instead of becoming vehicles for conveying knowledge to the
great mass of population as planned by the English, assumed ownership
of the English language, just as they had owned Sanskrit in the ancient
and medieval periods, and kept it in the private domain to preserve
their interests. In the beginning, it were the Christian schools that
catered to their aspiration of learning the English language, and later
many Hindus started running their own private schools. But these very
forces that got their English education through private schools, did
not allow the Government school system to teach in the English medium.
Even after 60 years
of our Independence, this dual mode of school education is sought to
be sustained. At the same time, higher educational institutions of both
the Centre and the States have been created to suit the English medium
student community. As of now, all the Central Government-run higher
educational institutions use English as their medium of instruction.
All Central universities, iits, iims and medical schools teach only
in the English language and admit students only through English language
entrance examination papers. The rural students — particularly
sc, st and obc students — find it difficult to cope with higher
education imparted in the English language as they mostly come from
regional language schools. When they fail, the upper caste intelligentsia
turns around and says there is a problem of merit with rural and lower
caste youth.
The Central government
adopted Hindi as the national language and imposed compulsory learning
of Hindi even on the southern states. Only Tamil Nadu resisted the teaching
of Hindi and adopted a system of bilingual school education in Tamil
and English. Students in other southern states had to suffer however.
Learning three languages was for them an unnecessary burden as Hindi
had no role in their day-to-day lives or in their educational career.
Yet it was forced on them in all Government schools from Class 3 onwards.
In comparison, the teaching of English in these states starts only from
Class 7. The misplaced assumption that students who have had their school
education in regional languages would catch up with English medium students
at the higher education level has been proven wrong.
Over time, English
has become the common language of the global science and technology
market and the overall economy. As Government schools do not teach in
English medium, those who study in them are denied the opportunities
given to their richer counterparts in English medium schools. Students
in regional language schools cannot therefore think of achieving anything
in the globalised economy.
Excerpted
from What Kind Of Education
Do Dalit-Bahujan Children Need?
by Prof Kancha Ilaiah, Chairperson of the
Political Science department of Osmania University, Hyderabad
