Removing English from Schools

India’s prominent board of education, CBSE, has decided to make English an optional language in schools. The schools can now opt for three Indian languages. For example, Kerala can teach Sanskrit, Hindi, and Malayalam. Which they won’t ever do, of course.

Most schools won’t give up English simply because English is the global language today.  It is the world’s principal language of science, technology, diplomacy, aviation, and international business. Indian professionals have enjoyed a competitive advantage because many graduate with functional English. Weakening that advantage could reduce India’s global competitiveness.

There is a big irony in CBSE’s new order. A lot of BJP leaders and their children have benefitted from English education. Some prominent examples:

§  S. Jaishankar (Minister of External Affairs): Attended the Air Force School in Subroto Park, Delhi, followed by St. Stephen's College and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

§  Piyush Goyal (Minister of Commerce and Industry): Studied at Don Bosco High School in Matunga, Mumbai, and later earned his law degree and accounting qualifications through English-medium institutions.

§  Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance Minister): Completed her schooling in Madras and Tiruchirappalli, later graduating from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College and completing her MPhil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

§  Jyotiraditya Scindia (Minister of Communications): An alumnus of the prestigious, English-medium The Doon School in Dehradun, he later graduated from Harvard University and Stanford University.

§  Kiren Rijiju (Minister of Parliamentary Affairs): Studied at Hansraj College and the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

§  Varun Gandhi (Former MP): Educated at the British School in New Delhi and later earned his higher education degrees from the University of London.

The children of many prominent BJP leaders have also been educated in English schools. Some of them are working abroad too.

Parent/BJP Leader	Child	Education/Status Abroad
S Jaishankar	Arjun Jaishankar	New York University
Nirmala Sitharaman	Vangmayi Parakala	Northwestern University, USA
Piyush Goyal	Dhruv Goyal	Harvard University, USA
J P Nadda	Harish Nadda	University of London
Shivraj Singh Chouhan	Kartikeya Chouhan   Kunal Chouhan	University of Pennsylvania, USA   New York University
Jyotiraditya Scindia	Mahanaaryaman Scindia Ananya Raje	Yale University, USA Rhode Island School of Design, USA
Dharmendra Pradhan	Naimisha Pradhan	Tufts University, USA
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat	Suhasini Shekhawat	Oxford University, UK.
Bhupender Yadav	Daughter	Parsons School of Design, USA
Kiren Rijiju	Son	University in UK

 

All the above leaders are ministers. They received English education and gave foreign education to their children. But they don’t want the ordinary children of India to learn English!

English matters. Much. Most textbooks in engineering, medicine, management, law, and the sciences are written in English. Even if universities teach partly in Indian languages, students must consult English journals and reference books. Limited English proficiency could make higher education much more difficult.

Moreover, making English optional could widen social inequality. Wealthier families will continue to send their children to English schools. Students in government or low-cost private schools stand to lose access to the language, creating an even larger gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.

CBSE has already introduced a new textbook in English for class 9. It is prepared by experts but people with extremely narrow vision. The whole focus is on Indianization of children’s thinking. There’s too much of brainwashing in those lessons, creating the impression in tender minds that India stands above all other nations civilizationally, culturally, geographically, scientifically, and mathematically.

A friend of mine joked about it. “According to CBSE’s science, Newton’s Laws of Motion were originally discovered in India. Long ago, when the Gujarat riots took place, the Chief Minister of the state Mr Modi said ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ to justify the killing of the Muslims by the Hindus.”