When Lord Macaulay made English language compulsory for the clergy in India way back in 1835, his intention was to break the Indian affinity for local languages and create a working class for them who can communicate in their language for their work. Little did he know that more than a century later English as a language would take over as the commercial language, binding a culturally diverse and multilingual country together.
With globalization taking over and open market economy mechanisms, arose a dire need of professionals with expertise along with proficiency in a language that rules the market - well the key word was ‘English’.
While on one hand, a huge number of private schools with their medium of instruction in English are flourishing in urban areas and upcoming cities; on the other hand, the public/government run schools are struggling to even operate appropriately, let alone provide education in English. Of course, most private schools with their high fee structure are also out of reach for a majority of Indian families. This inequality in education leaves a large size of young population educated in government and small town schools feel that a kind of advantage is being given to some people who might be just as good as them in the job but definitely have an edge because of their knowledge in English. Only a few government services like the Indian and State Administrative Services and the Defence services selections are not based on the applicant’s medium of education in English.
Improving the quality of public education in the country is the biggest challenge in front of planners in India today. There is a huge paucity of good teachers and public schools everywhere need comprehensive improvements in their service delivery. The parameters for assessing standards in English are quite clear — a Class V pass out should have reasonable knowledge of arithmetic to be able to do simple divisions and subtractions and he should also be able to write 50-100 words correctly on a given topic. It has been found that very few students from public schools are able to write grammatically correct ten lines in English on a given topic.
To the villagers, these public English medium schools are really schools for the rich people. In villages 90% of the people, or even more, have only heard of such institutions, since they are almost non-existent in the villages. But they are very anxious that their children should get justice and equal opportunity in regard to education and employment. They do not understand why their children should be labeled as ‘unintelligent’ only because they do not know good English and why the English- knowing persons should monopolize all fat-salaried jobs.
If we really want equality of opportunity for every child in India, the Common School system is a must. As a State responsibility, it requires massive investment in improving the quality of services in the public schools. A successful common school system can ensure that every child gets equal quality education and therefore equal opportunities to grow and make a future. We need awareness campaigns and workshops to improve reading and writing knowledge of English among students everywhere. It is also important to realize that knowledge of English, as a language has to be developed since it is the connecting language today, opening up better opportunities around the world.
Every child deserves equality in education and opportunity without any discrimination on any grounds. The state has a crucial role to play as an instrument of social justice and to do away with discrimination of any sort, especially in the context of children who represent the nation's human capital.
