Art Of Teaching

National Education Policy (NEP) has caused some disquiet and questions. It is the recommendation that children should be taught in their mother tongue, regional language, or home language (whatever that means and is not very clear in a multilingual country like India) up to class 5, and if possible until class 8.

The indication is to spin around to domestic languages instead of English. The three-language formula in the NEP also says any three, as long as two are Indian.

The insinuation is that English is a foreign language.

The drafters forgot that English is now a global language, often with diverse versions in different countries. In India, we have variants from north to south, east to west, from Queen’s English to Singh’s English.

Promotion Of Hindi & Sanskrit

Although in NEP references are made to the universities of Nalanda and Takshashila, and the goal is said to be “inspired” by both Nalanda and the Ivy League Schools, the plurality of India’s varied socio literary forms, languages, practices, and beliefs are time and again downgraded by being referred to as “local”, “regional” and “State-level” to differentiate them from what is asserted as the main “Indian” uniqueness.

Thus, NEP suggests that the promotion of Hindi and Sanskrit will be the central government’s responsibility because these languages are not “limited” to one State or community.

The other Indian languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution will remain only within the authority of the individual State governments.

Perhaps this explains why the capacious outline has been made accessible only in Hindi and English. Given the restricted time to react to the outline, it would be difficult even to organize for translations in any other Indian language.

The action reserved for Sanskrit makes the disregard even clearer. Affirmed to be an “important modern” and operational Indian language so that it can be spread under the three-language formula along with Hindi, it is more advantaged by claiming it as the classical foundation for most Indian languages.

Its supremacy is asserted over other “local” or “community precise traditional languages whereas, in fact, it is Brahmin superiority and the “consistency” of other Prakrit languages that have contributed to their “sanskritisation” over centuries.

A study on the execution of admittance of students from economically weaker sections in private schools stated communiqué in English as one of the reasons for dropouts.

But all are forgetting the other side of the coin is that English education should be available to those who cannot afford private schools. As an Ex- Principal have met parents who could not afford English medium but were hell-bent to put their kids in English mediums in spite of aided Marathi medium being an option.

Should we then create this divide again where we do not give the parents from economically weaker sections any choice in Government schools to teach their children in English?

An article in THE PRINT views how English has played a decisive role in India’s economic development and went on to forecast that with education in the mother tongue “Class-based inequality will widen in India, as those who are able to afford posh English-medium education in the cities pull further ahead of talent from the hinterland.”

The language dilemma: the NEP does not end here. The NEP mentions the execution of the three-language formula which gives the states autonomy to decide which languages are taught as long as 2 of the 3 languages taught are local to India.

There have been apprehensions among teachers and educationists that the New Education Policy 2020 is enthusiastic in promoting Sanskrit at the cost of English.

Please note that exclusion of English at the premature stage may set many motivated students back.

The NEP does not tell us the reason to do away with English and promote Sanskrit and Hindi.

If there are ample jobs in the market jobs students will automatically study that subject and English gives them a scope to get globalized jobs which is not the case with Sanskrit or Hindi.

We were already in a three-language policy with English, Marathi, and Hindi OR Marathi, Hindi, and English. Then where did the need arise to force Sanskrit in place of English??

And the only job that I am aware of with Sanskrit is either become a teacher or a spiritual orator.

Excluding English can’t be an option until the modern tech finds its origin in that because the kids are using it from a very early ages, so they have to learn English at that early age especially when NEP is stressing on coding and so on.

Also, before the new policy, the Government should focus on improving the condition of Government schools and employees there.

Also, we are not given a choice of choosing our languages and have to agree to whatever the Central and State Government decides.

So, though it is important to include Hindi, Sanskrit, and our native languages there should be the option of individual CHOICE.

Great Focus -21st Century Skills

Great focal point has been put on providing the child with “21st-century skills”.  At the same time, the student will now have greater suppleness in choosing her subjects as unbending differentiation between Arts and Sciences, curricular and extracurricular subjects, or vocational and academic streams will cease to exist.

But sorry to say the child has no choice to select his language of instruction

Educationists have welcomed the progress but also remained hesitant about how the government plans to put into practice such a scheme, particularly in a diverse country like India.

The policy, however, says that “no language will be imposed on any student”. But the implementation does not suggest so.

While the government devices to set up classical languages in school education, the big question is how it would implement it.

“Even research scholars find it hard to crack the codes of languages like Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit. Before announcing such a step, the government did not even bother to see whether it can be implemented or not,”

Knowing the diversity of languages and dialects in India, and growing internal migration and transfers, it will be very difficult to implement a mother tongue-based learning and may dominate Brahmanical systems of learning in India.

The education system tends to be centralized after the new policy is put in place, and it will become more and trickier to reason in diverse requirements of varied Indian people.

So I can conclude by saying that excluding or removing English is not the right way to implement the New Education Policy in a country like India with varied languages and dialects.