[EDLING:295] India: Hindi students fail to read papers in English

[Francis M. Hult]

The Statesman

Hindi students fail to read papers in English

KOLKATA, July 9: At a time when the state government is stressing on the 
development of the backward classes, the high drop-out rate and poor 
performance of students of Hindi medium schools in their Board examinations 
tells a different story. The reason is the fact that all the question papers 
are printed in English while the maximum number of the students have little 
knowledge of the language. 

Since most of these Hindi medium students hail from under-privileged families 
and English is their third language, the extent of their understanding of the 
language is minimal. They are expected to answer when they are unable to 
decipher the meaning of the questions. This results in poor performance and in 
the long run adds to the ever expanding list of drop-outs in the state. 
Representatives of West Bengal Association of Christian Schools and West Bengal 
Teachers’ Christian Association have decided to take up this issue with the 
state school education minister, Mr Partha De and demand immediate steps to be 
taken towards printing question papers in Hindi for Hindi medium candidates. 

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