The Language of Policy

Context: The recent National Educational Policy has rolled out ambitious plan for setting a renewed education standard in the country, but the acceptance of English as a medium of education may not die out soon. 

Positive Features of National Educational Policy 2020

• Stress on the mother tongue as the primary medium of education.
• Incorporation of pre-school education into the main education system.
• Ensuring all-round flexibility in course structures.

Significance of English

• Wrongly based Opposition to English:  

• Native languages of India are not threatened by English and will not meet the fate of vulnerable languages like Quechua, Guarani and Aymara – pre-Columbian languages.
• Only one of the top 10 most popular daily newspapers is published in English.
• Miniscule share in news television and entertainment media.

• Acceptance of English: is greater than its numerical strength as mother tongue.

• It remains the aspirational language, reasons for which is far removed from a colonial history.
• English the most rapidly growing medium of instruction in India’s schools and accounting now for more than one- sixth of the total
• English will continue to have its place in the corporate and financial worlds, in the higher courts,

• Complexity in imposing mother tongue:

• Straightforward proposition of mother tongue can complicate education in cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai which are heavily populated by migrants.