[lg policy] Skip English, focus on Indigenous Languages for India’s Development

[Harold Schiffman]

 Skip English, focus on Indigenous Languages for India’s Development
By NewsGram News Desk <http://www.newsgram.com/author/ng-news-desk/> -
January 26, 2016

<http://cdn.newsgram.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/DSC_133111-11-11-11-11-11.jpg>

*By Harshmeet Singh*

*“A common perception in India is that Indians need English to succeed. But
is it the other way around in reality?”*

The sky high vision and aim of becoming a world power that we carry with
respect to our nation, are based on an extremely shaky education system
which considers mimicking western theories the best way to impart knowledge.

With such a rich culture which is renowned worldwide, you would imagine
that Indian students of social studies and humanities would carry with them
enviable knowledge of Indian traditions, language and vedic sciences. But
unfortunately, all our education system offers to them is western ideas and
western thoughts.

*Our Anglophonic education system is majorly responsible for a continuing
colonized mindset that regards English as a mark of superiority. As the
African and Asian nations tread the path of development, their share in the
global GDP will see a surge in the coming decades. The economic influence
of the English-speaking nations is set to dip in the near future.*

With Spanish giving a tough competition to English in the US, English is
looking for an emerging economic power that would save its status as the
global language. In order to rope in Indian audience and viewers, a number
of US and UK news channels have now started covering news from the Indian
perspective.

India adopted a three-language for its education system in 1960s, when the
Indian economy looked up to US and UK. With English taking the center-stage
in this policy, the regional languages started losing ground. Despite vast
changes in the economy and India’s global standing, we never thought of
re-visiting our language policy for education to save our indigenous
languages.

[image: English]
<http://cdn.newsgram.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/DSC_127244444.jpg>

Some of the most renowned scientists in the world have taken birth in
non-English speaking nations, thereby ruling out the perception that
English is necessary for professional success in the field of Science and
Mathematics. Though knowledge of English, like any other language, is
certainly a handy skill to have, it is a myth that English is ‘necessary’
for professional success.

*There are innumerable examples to break this myth. The onus of breaking
this myth for the Indian youth lies with the Government which needs to
ensure that there are ample employment opportunities for those who chose to
give English a miss, and rather concentrated on other skills.*

The first step in this regard would be ensuring that there is high quality
educational material in indigenous languages for the students at all
levels. The UGC initiated Bharatvani project
<http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/ugc-bharatvani-project/1/534641.html>
is a major step in this regard. Proposed to be developed as the largest
language portal in the world, the Bharatvani project aims at delivering
knowledge in almost all Indian languages, with the help of multimedia
formats. It plans to aggregate multimedia content from the government,
writers and other non-governmental organizations and put it on a common
platform. UGC also plans to rope in publication houses and different
universities to make it a success.

http://www.newsgram.com/skip-english-focus-on-indigenous-languages-for-indias-development/


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