(Old news, but...) Bangalore hit by English ban in primary schools

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Business English:  Bangalore hit by English ban in primary schools

The ban on English language classes may in time further erode the
competitiveness of a city that styles itself as back office to the world.
The crackdown has seen 800 schools stripped of their status and a further
1,500 face closure. Bangalore hit by English ban in primary schools

By Jo Johnson, New Delhi

More than 100,000 English-speaking children in India's IT capital of
Bangalore will soon have to switch to schools offering lessons exclusively
in a Dravidian regional language, following a crackdown on more than 2,000
in the state of Karnataka. The state government's promise to enforce a
1994 language policy requiring compulsory Kannada-medium education in
primary schools reflects resentment at the influx of relatively wealthy
English-speaking IT workers into Bangalore.

The ban on English language classes may in time further erode the
competitiveness of a city that styles itself as back office to the world,
at a time when it is already suffering from severe shortages of skilled
labour, high wage inflation and overburdened infrastructure. The crackdown
has seen 800 schools stripped of their status and a further 1,500 face
closure, according to an education department official.

The move by the pro-rural state government has provoked dismay among
reformers, with many warning Karnataka to heed the example of West Bengal,
forced by its own rapid economic decline to abandon a similar "No English,
only Bengali" policy. "So, at one stroke, at least 100,000 children in the
country's - soon to be former? - IT capital have been punished for
developing skills in English, that global as well as Indian language,"
warned the Delhi-based Hindustan Times in an editorial.

The southern state's chief minister is tapping resentment among speakers
of Kannada, the local language, that it is outsiders who have generated
the vast bulk of new wealth in the state. Kannada speakers form a majority
in rural Karnataka, which was carved out of the old Bombay and Madras
presidencies along linguistic lines after independence. State politicians
have mounted a campaign to have Bangalore renamed Bengaluru. Although
rival cities such as Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai are fast catching up with
Bangalore, analysts say it retains an edge in software development, if not
in low-end call centres, thanks to the pool of IT experience accumulated
over a decade.

Bangalore is home to more than 1,500 companies in the IT and IT-enabled
business service sector, and accounts for more than a third of a $23bn
export industry.

[Moderator's note: glossary below provided by website:]

Dravidian = drawidische Sprachen (werden in Sdlindien und Sri Lanka
gesprochen)
crackdown =  hartes Durchgreifen
compulsory =  obligatorisch
resentment =  Groll
erode =  untergraben
back office =  Verwaltung, Buero ohne Kundenkontakt
shortages =  Knappheit
dismay =  Verzweiflung
at one stroke =  auf einen Streich
accumulated =  anhufen

http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/121600.html

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