THIS has become a major social and educational issue in the past quarter of a century. More and more families have children studying in English medium schools -- in which there is a planned neglect of mother-tongue as a great source of joy, if not as a medium of instruction. In home after home, we come across children who cannot read or write in their respective mother-tongues properly. And by all standards, this is an unfortunate situation. The effort here is not to cast an aspersion on English as a medium of instruction -- particularly when the column-writer is Editor of an English-language daily newspaper. The idea is to remind the readers of the beauty and glory of mother-tongue -- Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Urdu, Odiya, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil ....! The idea is to tell everybody that mother-tongue is the best medium of learning (not of instruction in schools or colleges).

 

The stress, thus, is on learning and the right medium to achieve that. Unfortunately, however, English has started dominating the educational and social scenes. Children in increasing numbers are resorting to reading only English books. In increasing numbers of families, an ever-growing stress is visible in conversations dominated by English. In the long run, this has started affecting the children’s awareness of their respective mother-tongues. In the process, kids are missing the joy of reading books or writing letters etc. in their mother-tongue. There is a massive educational flaw, too, in this system. The children’s comprehension takes a big hit in the process. The reasons are multiple and too obvious. The children start grappling with a foreign language right from the start, as a result of which they face a dichotomous situation -- communication at home in mother-tongue and medium of instruction in English in schools. This explains the overall mediocre standard of English language -- spoken or written -- particularly in the urban communities in the country.

 

Everybody supposedly speaks and writes in English, but very few really enjoy a decent knowledge of the language. I am a big sufferer of this system. For, when I meet young people in job interviews, I realise that even the kids from English medium schools have a very poor comprehension of English as a language. In the past several years, I have had to reject more than 95 per cent of candidates only because their understanding of English has been terribly poor. I am very sure that a lot of people reading this concur with me on this.

 

I am also sure that most educationists also have a similar view on the issue. And that encourages me to suggest that it is time for us to change our stress on English. We will do very well for ourselves if we shift the focus from English to mother-tongue. There is no need to indulge in self-aggrandisement. Yet, I went to a Marathi medium school and studied in Marathi throughout my school and college years. But that continuous connect with Marathi did not deprive me of my capability in English language. Most people of my generation sail in the same proud boat -- with fair command of English and mother-tongue. I hope, most people who are reading this have no problem with this line of thought.