Language Policy in Education

 

Unit IV Language Policy in Education

Language policy during the pre-independent and post-independent India - Language policy as specified in Indian Constitution - Views of great thinkers on medium of instruction: Views of great thinkers-Tagore, Gandhi, and Vivekananda.

Importance of Language

            Language symbolizes human development.  Language is the power of the human race through which he is able to express himself and understand the expressions of others.  India is a big country in which people of different castes, religions, standards of living, food habits, languages and customs are living.  Apart from physical diversities between one region and the other, there are several other kinds of diversities in India.

Language policy during the Pre-independent Period

Vedic and Buddhist Period: During the Vedic Period and Epic Period, the major language of Instruction in the Educational Process was Sanskrit, the language of the upper cast people.  During the Buddhist Period, they started using Pali, the language of the common folk at their Viharas for educational transaction. 

Under Muslim Rule: With the establishment of Muslim rule in the land a foreign language came into existence for the first time in India.  Urdu the original language of Muslim rulers was used for government work. But it could not become the medium for inter-provincial communication in spite of government protection.  Sanskrit, other native and Hindi continued to occupy that place. 

Under British Rule

Christian Missionaries: The Christian Missionaries established educational institutions as a powerful means to spread Christian religion.  In all such institutions the medium of instruction was English.  Lord Macaulay and Lord William Bentinck stood for English as the medium of instruction.  The British Government also declared that preference would be given to English knowing people for government posts.  Thus English education got more encouragement from the time of the British Rule.

Wood’s Dispatch (1854): An amendment was made in the Wood’s Dispatch of 1854, that English would be the medium of instruction only for brilliant students and all other students would be educated through Indian languages.

Education Commission (1882):  The first Education Commission decided that the medium for Secondary Schools would be English but primary education would be given through Indian languages.

Calcutta University Commission (1917): It recommended the adoption of Indian languages as medium of instruction up to higher secondary stage.

1935 to 1947:  By 1935, regional languages had become medium of instruction in most of the educational institutions.  But some institutions, run by Christian Missionaries, kept English as the medium of instruction.  The leaders engaged in public movement demanded to make Indian languages as medium of instruction in all types of educational institutions and to adopt the Basic system of education for the primary level.  After the Movement of 1942, the British rulers accepted Indian languages as the first compulsory language and English as second compulsory language for secondary education but continued English as medium of instruction for higher education.

Language policy during Post Independent Period

Dr.Radhakrishnan Commission (1948):  The first commission known as Dr.Radhakrishnan Commission was appointed in 1948 after Independence.  It recommended the study of the national language in the Devanagri Script and that of English and regional language both at secondary and University stages.

Secondary Education Commission (1953): It recommended two language formula instead of three-language formula recommended by Radhakrishnan Commission.  It also recommended that at the State level facilities should be provided for the study of every language spoken in a State.

The Central Advisory Board of Education (1956): It recommended the adoption of three-language formula.

Kothari Commission: Appointed in 1964-66, the Kothari Commission proposed some suggestions regarding the language problem in its report, after visiting a number of places and after interviewing students, teachers and parents etc., of all regions and levels.   According to it, the languages taught at different stages should have the following form:

·         Classes I to IV: The study of one language should be compulsory.  It will naturally be the mother tongue.

·         Classes V to VII:  The study of the two languages should be compulsory at this stage.  First language should be mother tongue and the second language may either be the official language of the Nation i.e., Hindi or the associate official language of the Union i.e., English so long as it exists.

·         Classes VIII to X: The study of three languages should be compulsory at this stage and one of these three languages should be the official language of the Nation or the associate official language which was not taken up in class V to VII.

·         Classes XI to XII: Two languages should be made compulsory at this stage.  The student should be given option to select any two of three languages studied earlier or any two languages from the groups given ahead:

(i)              Modern Indian Languages.

(ii)           Modern Foreign Languages.

(iii)         Classical Languages – Foreign and Indian.

Ishwar Bhai Patel Committee (1977):         The Committee recommended that in determining the pattern of languages to be taught, the recommendations of the Kothari Commission should be given due consideration.

The National Policy on Education (1979): According to this, the three-language formula will be implemented at the secondary stage.  It includes the study of a modern Indian language preferably a South Indian language, in addition to Hindi and English in Hindi-speaking states.

Language policy as specified in Indian Constitution

Articles 343–351 of Part XVII and the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India deal with issues of the languages of the country

Article 343 - 1: “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.”

Article 343 – 2: “English can be used for all official purposes as a language of vital opportunities and international contact.”

Article 345: “Official communication between States and Union should be in the Official language of the Union i.e. Hindi.”

Article 348: “English can be used for all legal purposes eg. For bills, procedures of court etc.”

Article 350 A: State should provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups

Article 351: State should take necessary steps to promote and spread Hindi as a national link language.

Views of Great Thinkers on Medium of instruction

Rabindranath Tagore

Education according to Tagore is development of the individual. It is the enrichment of personality and education should be Indian and not borrowed from the West.

Curriculum: Tagore was a naturalist and also an idealist and he wants things of beauty and nice 
virtues to be taught in the curriculum. He lays stress on those subjects that make a child full 
and rich in knowledge. He also wants them to appreciate truth, beauty and goodness.

Methods of Teaching: He wants teaching-learning to be a joyous adventure, full of thrills, wonders, and surprises.  School is not to be a factory and learning has to be enjoyable.

He believes that children learn their lessons with the aid of their whole body and mind, with all the senses fully active and eager. Tagore does not want teachers to be harsh to children. They should be treated with all sympathy and consideration.

·         He is in favor of easy education that is education through music, art, literature and nature

·         Books must provide students with vivid pictures of their home and society.

·         Education must not lead students to enchanting falsehood.

The Role of a Teacher: The teacher’s role is to provide an environment, where students have the confidence to express their own learning ability.

·      There is no need for any form of corporal punishment to discipline students because fear of making mistakes prevents an individual from being free to venture a new thought, to innovate, to ask questions and to be creative.

·      Discipline should be based on motivations like joy and pursuit of creative tasks.

·      A teacher must prepare students for the good fortune and character as well.

Medium of instruction

·      Tagore emphasised on mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Language is the true vehicle of expression.

·      Tagore wanted to reform Indian education by combining the progressive views of the west and the spirituality of the east.

·      As he was an artist turned educationist, he gave a new dimension to education-emotional fulfilment through self expression, creative work and communion with nature.

Mahatma Gandhi

Basic Educational Concepts

Education for Gandhi is holistic in nature.  It leads to the development of all aspects of human personality, an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man, body, mind and spirit.  The highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education.

Gandhi emphasized the need for educating the child through manual work as the prime means of intellectual training. 

He wanted education to be free from the narrow limitations of the formal classroom. He envisages compulsory education for all boys and girls.  Gandhi was of the view that education should help children to be good citizens.  Education for him should cater to the needs of the whole personality: head, heart and hand.

At the primary education level according to Gandhi, children should be given elementary knowledge of history, geography, mental arithmetic and the art of spinning. Through these he proposes to develop their intelligence. He felt that the commencement of training by teaching the alphabet and reading and writing hampers their intellectual growth. The alphabet has to be taught only after they are acquainted with the prevailing conditions and history of the society in which they live.

Gandhi on Medium of Instruction

Gandhi has totally opposed English education. His distaste towards English education is evident in his writings.  Gandhi attaches greatest importance to learning in the language into which a child is born. He notes that ‘English is today admittedly the world language. I would therefore accord it a place as a second, optional language, not in the school, but in the university course. We and our children must build on our own heritage’.

Gandhi noted that by borrowing from others we impoverish our own language. His stress was on building knowledge in the languages spoken by people.  English medium education causes an undue stress on children.  It will make them crammers and imitators. Gandhiji believed that foreign medium will make our children foreigners in our own land.  English medium instruction will prevent the growth of our vernaculars.

Swami Vivekananda

Vivekananda believed in the unity of man and God.  He tried to unite Indian spirituality and western materialism.  Education is the discovery of the inner-self i.e self revelation. Education is development from within. Vivekananda doesn’t believe in the system of education where the learners’ mind gets jam packed with information without having any space for independent thinking.

Methods of Teaching: The task of the teacher is only to help the child to manifest knowledge by removing the obstacles in its way.  The learner is just like a plant, and we cannot do anything more than supplying it water, air, manure while it grows from its own nature.

The method of teaching must be problem-solving under the bias-free guidance of the teacher.  The teacher’s role is just a facilitator, similar to the modern educationist Heuristic method.  The teacher has to come down to the level of the learner and give him a push upwards.

Role of the Teacher: Teachers must help children’s mind to grow by unfolding and unveiling the natural power inherent in them. Children teach themselves and the duty of the teacher is to offer them opportunity and remove obstacles. Teachers must provide conducive environment and the rest will happen by itself.

Medium of Instruction: Vivekananda strongly advocates “mother tongue” as the medium of instruction so that it will reach everyone. However, he also believes that it is necessary to learn English and Sanskrit. While English is important for mastering Science, Sanskrit leads one into the depths of our vast store of classics.