When we talk about linguistic diversity, Indonesia stands second, while India is at 4th, the USA is at 5th, and China is at 7th, but apart from India, all these countries mandate their primary education in one primary language only. In Indonesia, it’s Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesia. The primary language in the United States is English, while Mandarin is the primary educational medium in China. However, in India, more than 22 languages are used as a medium of instruction for primary education. It may sound great from a psychological, regional, or emotional standpoint, but in the real world, language diversity increases inequality in acquiring knowledge.
A few years ago, while attending a public speaking workshop, I met a Ph.D. scholar conducting research in agro-economics. During the conversation, he shared the struggle he was facing in his research due to the limited academic resources available in his mother tongue. As their state implemented their mother tongue as the primary language of instruction until higher level education, English was always a secondary language for studies. I believe that his apathy is shared by others as well. It reflects the frustration of many young scholars who are unable to compete due to language barriers.
I worked in a multiethnic workplace where I witnessed the stark disparity between people who hailed from the English medium and those without. Those who hail from the English medium are frequently referred to as “smart” competitive employees, but I later realized that this is not because they have some kind of intellectually gifted ability, but rather because of the breadth of information they were exposed to in the early stages of their lives due to their proficiency in English.
The point I am trying to establish is that inequality among students in the name of linguistic diversity is getting wider. Students who receive education in English from the beginning are more exposed to learning programming, cognitive science, and math, while a student studying at a state board in a non-English medium does not receive such exposure. Society kept them out by restricting academic access to their mother tongue only.
To reduce this gap between “SMART” and “NON-SMART” students, the English language must be introduced as early as it can be. According to MIT’s research, “Cognitive scientists define critical period for learning language,” there is an age limit to becoming proficient in a language, and that age is 18. Children should be allowed to learn the language before they reach 10 so that by the time they reach 18, they can be proficient in that language. This is why it is critical to begin teaching English in primary school.
To be clear, the purpose of this entire post is not to belittle mother tongues. It’s just an attempt to explain why it’s important to break the “Eliteness of English” and make it a people’s language.
To close this gap, NEP has suggested the English language be taught from class 1 along with the mother tongue. The challenge will be to find adequate English teachers among more than millions of primary schools in order to carry out this massive task. Muralee Thummarukudy, a renowned environmentalist, has proposed a few steps that can be taken to address this issue. According to him, the government can hire retired retired English teachers and English graduates and mobilize them as part of a countrywide campaign to ensure that every student has access to English. This will relieve additional strain on the existing workforce. Additionally, if necessary, undergraduate students can be enrolled to assist teachers by providing scholarships or other incentives.
We are fortunate to have several renowned academics and educators who can help to pave the way for constructive discussions about how to introduce English without compromising the mother tongue from the primary school level…