The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Language: the challenge is in ensuring quality delivery

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Language: the challenge is in ensuring quality delivery

Bageshree S.

The decision on English in schools saw much debate

A long-standing demand of Dalits has been fulfilled
The way in which it was rushed through has drawn flak

Bangalore: The year 2007 marked the introduction of English as a subject in all Government and aided Kannada-medium schools from standard 1, a landmark decision that saw much debate both on its efficacy and the methodology to be adopted.

It was a bold move indeed, considering that language remains a sensitive issue.

Seven months into the implementation of the decision, the opposition, primarily from the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, has virtually disappeared.

The move has been largely welcomed as an effort at empowering the deprived sections who cannot afford to go to English-medium schools — a long-standing demand of many Dalit organisations.

However, the way the implementation was rushed through has seen much criticism.

The then Government had received flak for derecognising over 2,000 schools for flouting the language policy and teaching in English medium earlier in the year.

Though the Government was on a firm legal ground as the erring schools had gone against a written undertaking, it was seen largely as an anti-English stance and also against the interests of lower middle-class children whose only access to English education is through these schools.

CBSE and ICSE schools are, by and large, beyond the reach of those who fall below the upper middle-class bracket. The recognition row is, in fact, still to be completely resolved, with a crucial case on the language policy of the State pending before the High Court of Karnataka.

A.R. Vasavi, professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, says that an ambitious initiative such as introduction of English should have been done over a period of at least two years with extensive training for teachers. Prof. Vasavi, who coordinated a project on elementary education in Chamarajnagar district, observes: “Most teachers face difficulties in contextualising the language and introducing it in conversations.”

As the year draws to a close, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s deadline of ensuring that “all six to 14-year-olds are in classes 1 to 8 by 2007” and “all required infrastructure and human resources for providing eight years of free, compulsory, relevant and quality education are in place by 2007” are yet to be fulfilled in totality, as a sizable section of children continue to stay out of school, especially in the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

As Commissioner of Public Instruction Kumar Naik puts it, the challenge is not really in introducing grand schemes and projects, but ensuring quality delivery.

Whether introduction of English language proves empowering for lakhs of poor children across the State hinges on this.

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