[lg policy] Karnataka: 'English need not be at the cost of mother tongue.'

[Harold Schiffman]

Need for balance

'English need not be at the cost of mother tongue.'


The whole country will be watching with interest the Supreme Court’s
verdict on the issue of language policy in education which is
currently before it. The judgment could have a far-reaching bearing on
the future of mother tongue in education and the development of the
languages themselves, as the ‘battle’ between the mother tongue and
English is on in many states. The Karnataka government received a
legal setback when the Supreme Court refused to stay the state high
court’s order quashing the state’s language policy of 1994. The policy
had mandated that students in the state should be imparted education
in their mother tongue from Standard I to IV. It is based on the well
accepted principle that the mother tongue of a child is the best
medium of instruction in the early stages of schooling, but
unfortunately, it has got entangled with the modern ‘craze’ for
English and the belief that those who study in mother tongue will
remain ‘backward.’

The principle which the high court chose to go by is the need to
uphold the parent’s freedom to decide the language in which the child
should get education. The continuing controversy involves a clash
between these two ideas in educational thought — the primacy of
parent’s choice and the need for schooling in mother tongue. It is
doubtful whether the high court or the Supreme Court has given full
consideration to all the issues involved and their implications. What
good is the parent’s freedom if it does not ultimately help the child?
The principle of mother tongue as medium will be enforced only in the
primary classes and students can later shift to any other medium of
choice, including English. Would the student have been rendered
“ineligible even for clerical jobs” in those four years? The court’s
observation that instruction in mother tongue would disadvantage
students with a rural background also does not seem to be correct.

It is true that schools which impart education in the mother tongue,
which are mainly government schools, are deficient in infrastructure
and trained teachers and have to be improved in many ways. But the
remedy is not to rule them out of existence, which the court’s
position might eventually lead to. It is possible to evolve and
implement a language policy which will help the students to develop
their mind and personality and promote pride in their mother tongue,
while equipping them to face the challenges and requirements of the
modern world with the knowledge of English.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/17066/need-balance.html

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