Regional Language vs. English as Instructional Medium in Higher Education: the Indian Dilemma

At Independence, the regional Language was the medium of instruction from Primary to High school. English was taught as a subject from the 5th or 6th standard.

At the Intermediate, 4-year (degree) colleges, and University English was medium for all subjects except modern language or classical language. This pattern emerged after a century of conflict (Anglicists vs. the Orientalists); the 1835 Maccaulay Minute, where English was to be used for useful knowledge .

Vernacular Education was championed by Brian Houghton Hodgson (of the Brit. East India Company ) plus Wilson (a missionary). The conflict ended in 1854, when Gov. Gen'l of INdia, in a dispatch on education (1854) directed the gov't to use vernacular medium to reach middle and lower strata of society; but not implemented systematically for next 7 decades(!)

After Mutiny, power was transferred to the Crown. Still in 1882, 60% of primary schools operated in English. Lord Curzon, Vice-Roy of India (1898-1905) made sweeping changes in ed. policy:

Resolution on Educational Policy of the GOI (21, Feb. 1930) established vernacular schools from primary to secondary. The Saddler Commission (1917) reaffirmed that education was unsound if vernacular language was not known.

1. At Independence, there was recognition of 15 languages of the 8th schedule, this amounting to 87% of the population.
2. Linguistic States were reorganized in 1956 (and 1960)
3. University Education Commission of 1949: English should be replaced asap for higher ed.
4. Educational Commissions of 1964-66 proposed that mother=-tongue be used up to highest levels (i.e. instruction and exams) but English be retained for library and as a subject.

As usual, implementation was haphazard .

• Many states adopted regional languages as "optional" for undergraduate courses (such as Tamil P.U.C. in 1966).
• But post- graduate ed (M.A., Ph.D., M.D. etc.) remained all in English at all levels.
• Or: there would be two streams:
• English Medium
• RL medium

Problem: RL medium people couldn't switch to English in Postgrad (too late). LR became disadvantage

This meant that there was

1. greater importance of English from the beginning (despite the contradictory intent) and
2. it also meant the proliferation of many poor quality English-medium schools.

Statistics on medium of instruction given in Table 13.1:

Table 13.1 Medium of Instruction at Universities/Institutes
	Institutions	No.	Medium of Instruction
1	Central Universities	8	English
2	Indian Institutes of Technology	5	English
3	Professional Universities/Institutions Agriculture Universities 22 Gujarat Ayurved University 1 J. N. Technological University 1 Indira Kaka Sangit University 1	25	Not stated for most
4	Deemed to be Universities	96	English (for Professional Institutions) Sanskrit, Hindi, English (for language institutions)
5	Multi-faculty universities	96	English at postgraduate level and regional languages as optional medium at the undergraduate level
Total		154

Note: Section 4, Deemed to be Universities: means institutions that are traditional in form but are put on a par with universities, for prestige purposes: Sanskrit Colleges, Ayurveda schools, etc.

Multifaculty U's: English is used at the postgrad level, RL at the BA level.

Problems: As Krishnamurti points out, there are problems with this:

• There is a backlash effect (what I call push down or back up effect) such that if English is needed for something at the Post-grad level, it will be demanded at the previous level, too, in order to prepare for that eventual need. This eventually pushes the need back/down to the lowest level.

Expansion of Higher Ed has happened without a sense of direction. Major employers in the country want English (industry, banking, government) so there is a backlash against the RL's.

Solutions: BHK wants to do the following:

• Extend RL's to all levels of ed while improving English for spoken/written skills.
• Alternatively: return to the pre-60's model, with RL's only used through High School., and English only in tertiary. (But this will increase the gap between masses and elites).
• Time has been wasted on
• preparation of textbooks
• preparation of terminologies

Language grows in a given domain when used by its users; doing other things has been to put the cart before the horse.

BHK: do the following:

• Extend RL's to higher ed, but keep English textbooks.
• Let textbooks be evolved by language users
• Use free-styles in classroom, esp. code-switching because prescribing codes has frozen things up.
• Standard English textbooks should continue to be sources of knowledge
• Develop specialized courses to familiarize scientific English to different fields (i.e. teach the teachers scientific English, but don't expect the students to actively use it).
• After another decade of experimentation, let gifted and experienced teachers prepare textbooks on a free-market basis.