<div><span class="arttle"><h1>20 million Indian children study in English-medium schools</h1></span><span class="byline"><span class="imghov" style><span id="auim"></span></span><a rel="author" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Anahita-Mukherji.cms">Anahita Mukherji</a>, TNN <span style="font-size:9px">|</span> Mar 2, 2012, 05.47AM IST</span></div>
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<div style="width:300px" class="zoomimg1"><div style="font-size:11px;text-align:left;padding-right:5px;color:#757575;font-style:italic">The
last eight years have seen a staggering rise in the number of children
studying in English-medium schools across the country. </div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="padding-top:10px"></span><div class="Normal"> NEW DELHI: The last eight years have seen a staggering rise in the number of children studying in <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/English-medium-schools">English-medium schools</a>
across the country. Data on school enrolment for 2010-11 shows that,
for the first time, the number of children enrolled in English-medium
schools from Classes I to VIII has crossed the two crore mark - a 274%
rise since 2003-04. <br><br> For the fourth year in a row, English is
the second-largest medium of instruction in India, ahead of both Bengali
and Marathi, according to a yet-to-be released report on countrywide
school enrolment by the National University of Education, Planning and
Administration (NUEPA) under its District Information System for
Education. <br><br> "The collection of information under DISE has
improved over the years, and now gives a true picture of enrolments by
medium of instruction across the country," says Professor Arun C Mehta
of NEUPA. <br><br> While Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and English have all
seen a rise in enrolment in 2010-11 when compared with the previous
year, the rate of increase is highest for English. <br><br> While there
is an obvious demand for the English language in India, academicians and
policy-makers believe state governments are handling this demand in an
extremely unimaginative manner. <br><br> "There is a wealth of research
which shows that the best medium of instruction for a child to have a
conceptual understanding of a subject is his mother-tongue. Just because
people want their children to study English does not mean that they
need to enroll them at an English-medium school. If Indian-language
schools did a good job teaching English, parents would not need to send
their children to English-medium schools," said <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/R-Govinda">R Govinda</a>, vice-chancellor of NUEPA. He himself studied in a Kannada-medium school where he picked up good English, he pointed out. <br>
<br>
"There has been extensive research to show that the number of years for
which children study a language does not necessarily translate into
them being able to speak or read the language. It is seen that if you
show mastery over your first language and can read and write it
fluently, you can learn a second language, such as English, a lot
faster," says Professor <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Anita-Rampal">Anita Rampal</a>,
dean of the faculty of education at Delhi University. She points to
countless instances where textbooks are in English but children can't
make sense of them. <br><br> "Several states have seen a spike in the
number of private schools, many of which call themselves English medium,
though they don't teach much English," says Govinda. But <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Vinod-Raina">Vinod Raina</a>, an architect of India's Right to Education Bill, feels the recent <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/NUEPA">NUEPA</a>
data should not be interpreted as a rise in enrolment in private
English-medium schools alone, as several states, such as Jammu &
Kashmir and Punjab, are themselves adopting English medium for
government schools. <br><br> Raina, who has studied the education system
in J&K and Punjab, says that teachers in these states are bitter
about being forced to teach in English without being equipped to do so,
with disastrous consequences. "This is not simply a question of one
teacher having to teach the English language, but about all teachers
suddenly having to transact in English," he says. "That government
schools are turning English medium does not, in any way, mean that either
teachers or students at these schools can speak a word of English,"
says Raina. <br><br> Rampal points to an urgent need for a
well-deliberated national language policy, in the absence of which
individual states have taken arbitrary decisions regarding English. <br><br>
Many, like Shyam Menon, director of Ambedkar University, believe that
the rise in the number of children at Englishmedium schools reflects the
aspirations of India's middle class, which believes that an English
education translates into greater upward mobility, irrespective of the
quality of education delivered at many schools.<br><br><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/2-crore-Indian-children-study-in-English-medium-schools/articleshow/12105621.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/2-crore-Indian-children-study-in-English-medium-schools/articleshow/12105621.cms</a><br>
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