THE STUDY OF ENGLISH IN INDIA
An Educational Appraisal
M.
V. RAJAGOPAL, M. A. (Cantab.), I. A. S.
This
paper is the attempt of one interested in qualitative education to see how a
competent teaching and learning of English in our schools and colleges can be
promoted strictly within the framework of an approved national policy of
education. No political prejudice either for or against English will be
imported into the discussion as far as it is humanly possible. The place and
importance of English in our curriculum will be estimated purely on the basis
of its usefulness to our educational progress. This is very
necessary because the popular debate on this matter has considerably clouded
the issue and the politically uncommitted section of the
public such as parents and teachers have been rather bewildered and quite a few
of them are frankly asking whether English is being banished from the Indian
curriculum. It is therefore, necessary not only to clear the misconception in
the public mind with the help of recent official reports and pronouncements on
language policy but also to outline the methods by which the shockingly low
standards of teaching and learning of languages in general and English in
particular, now prevalent in a majority our schools and colleges could be
arrested and superior levels of comprehension and expression attained in the
learning of English. It might be helpful in this connection to attempt a brief
historical sketch of how and why English came to occupy the pivotal place which
it enjoyed until recently in our educational system and how it has been
disintegrating and petering out as an educational medium in the last two
decades without anything equally or approximately as good being developed to do
its function.
The
controversy over the medium of instruction in this country is almost as old as
the East India Company. After a good deal of public resistance put up even in
those days, the Company authorities finally decided that English was the only
possible medium for “Education in European Literature, Philosophy and Science.”
With this enthronement of English as the medium of higher education, it was but
natural and even necessary that the Indian languages gradually
ceased yielding place to English as the medium even in secondary education,
despite the view contained in Wood’s despatch of 1854 that English and the
modern Indian languages would together become the media for the dissemination
of European knowledge. Regardless of the merits or defects of such an
educational system, it had at least the understandable advantage of a common
medium of instruction both at the school and collegiate level. In the fifty
years that followed Wood’s despatch, the English language was fastened to the
educational system of the country with hoops of steel, as it were. It meant
that not only English became the sole medium of instruction but it also became
the sine qua non of culture, an uncritical value to which the Indian
mind became to a very great extent enthralled. The I. Q. of children at school
came to be measured by the almost sole criterion of their competence in the
English language. The study of every other subject was subordinated to the
study of English. By the beginning of this century, the climax of this process
had been reached. Indian languages no doubt existed in the curriculum in some
manner but pale as the watery moon in a morning sky dazzling with the
brilliance of the rising sun. An official publication called “The Progress of
Education in India” published in 1902 observed: “The English secondary course
aims at giving school education. The teaching of English is the prime object
throughout the course and in the higher classes, instruction in all the
subjects is given through the medium of English.”
It
would appear therefore that by 1902 the triumph of English as the medium of
education both at the secondary and collegiate levels was complete as well as
irreversible. For at least the next twenty years nothing in the educational
world of India happened to disturb the supremacy of English as the sole medium
of secondary and university education. It was in 1921 that a political change
came over the country through the introduction of diarchy at the provincial
level. A significant consequence of this change was that education became a
transferred subject and passed into the hands of the elected representatives of
the people. In retrospect, we could regard this as a momentous change because
it marked the beginnings, however faint then, of the revival of Indian
languages as the media of instruction in secondary schools. Commenting on this
historical change, the Gokak Committee, appointed by the Government of India to
report on the study of English in India, has observed as follows: “The change
came gradually and unobtrusively all over the country. It began probably with
permission being given by the examining bodies in a State to pupils in
secondary schools to answer the question papers in subjects like history and
geography in the mother tongue. The next step was taken when instructions were
issued permitting the use of the mother tongue as an alternative medium for the
teaching of certain subjects. There were hardly any text-books on any of the
prescribed subjects when the transition began. But the demand for such
text-books increased with the increasing use of the regional languages as media
of instruction and the book trade began to co-operate and meet the demand by
publishing text-books in the regional languages. Very soon even subjects like
mathematics, physics and chemistry began to be taught through the regional
medium. The transition culminated in a last measure, as it were, when, in some
of the States, the training colleges followed suit and permitted the regional
languages as a medium alternative to English in the lectures delivered on some curricular
subjects.” This should not, however, be taken to mean that the pace of
regionalisation of the medium of instruction was in any sense rapid in the
years intervening between 1921 and 1947. English was still the prima donna of
the time-table in schools and colleges and the educated upper classes were the
chief patrons and beneficiaries of the English medium in education. The advent
of independence, however, changed the linguistic pattern as well as the policy
of the country. English, no doubt, continued but its supremacy and permanence
were challenged and at the secondary school level the pace of regionalisation
of the medium gained a vast momentum. For instance, in the State of Andhra
Pradesh where there are about 2,800 secondary schools, the medium of
instruction and examination, in all but a handful of exclusive schools in the
bigger towns and cities, is the regional language. English is, no doubt, still
being studied in all the schools of Southern India as a compulsory second
language but the ubiquitous nature of its presence in the curriculum has been
eliminated. In order to follow the later discussion in this paper on the future
study of English in India it is very important to bear in mind the virtual
elimination of English as the medium of instruction dominating the school
time-table and its relegation to an isolated period of 40 minutes every day.
While
English was gradually being eliminated as the medium in secondary schools, no
such corresponding change took place in the medium of
instruction in higher education. The colleges and universities continued
instruction through English and in course of time this led to a serious
dichotomy the repercussions of which are being increasingly felt particularly
in recent years. Every year the number of students with no power of
comprehension or expression in the English language entering colleges and
universities is increasing and the first year in the university is practically
spent by a great majority of these students in improving their power of comprehension
of the English language so as to follow the text-books and also lectures
delivered through that language. As a former Registrar of the Andhra
University, I had occasion to observe that the real percentage of passes in the
P. U. C. Examination, before it was bloated by moderation, was 19. This is a
staggering wastage by any standards and the main reason is the complete
polarisation between the school and the college in regard to the medium of
instruction. It is not only that most of the students entering the colleges do
not have a pennyworth of English in them but a stage has been reached when even
the younger lecturers in the universities speak and write the English language
incorrectly, signifying thereby the complete breakdown of English as medium of
higher education. Taking stock of this melancholy situation in Indian
education, the Gokak Committee ruefully observes: “In the country of Panini who
gave the science of linguistics to the world, there are hardly any pupils in
our regional medium schools who can write a correct sentence in English. If we
speak of a group of sentences, the statement can be extended so as to include
our colleges in spite of English being the medium of instruction and
examination there. Scripts are assigned marks by university examiners not for
what the examinees have said but what they meant to say. The English language
has itself a ghost-life in India. It lingers in our examination scripts as the
ghost of a ghost, like Plato’s work of art.”
Here
is probably the knottiest problem of the century requiring the most careful
handling by both educational experts and statesman of some calibre.
Regionalisation of the medium of education both at the secondary and collegiate
levels is the obvious answer but to leave it simply at that, without clearly
stating what are its implications and now they should be guarded against so as
not to impair the quality of our secondary and higher education either
immediately or in the long range, is to shirk our responsibility to posterity.
This requires the formulation of a language policy which will protect as well
as promote the national and international requirements of an educational system
aiming at real quality. It cannot be denied that a serious effort has been made
in the country over the last many years to determine the main features of a
language policy applicable to the educational system. The Radhakrishnan
Commission, one of the earliest in this regard, observed: “Both from the point
of view of education and of the general welfare of a democratic community, it
is quite essential that the study of educated youth should be through the
instrumentality of their regional language. Education in the regional language
will not only be necessary for their provincial activities, but it will enable
them to enrich their literature and develop their culture.” Beyond making a
broad statement of principle the Radhakrishnan Commission did not attempt
anything by way of more detailed guidance regarding a language pattern for the
country’s educational system at various levels or even the mechanics of a
switch over from English to the regional language in higher education and the
role of the English language itself after such regionalisation. The Kothari
Commission, however, which came nearly sixteen years later and took a more
synoptic view of the educational pyramid unlike the Radhakrishnan Commission
whose terms of reference confined them to one segment of education, gave the
country both the core and the contours of a realistic language policy. They
declared in un-ambiguous language that they are convinced of the advantages of
education through the regional languages and that they regard the development
of regional languages as vital to the general progress of the country and as an
important step towards the improvement of quality in education. At the same
time they also sounded salutary warning against any single-track approach to
the problem of regionalisation. They emphasised the importance of both English
and Hindi. Of English, in particular, they emphasised its importance to the
quality of education in words which immoderate language enthusiasts and some
teacher-politicians in particular will do well never to forget. They said, “The
introduction of the regional languages as media of education should not be
interpreted to mean underrating the importance of English in the university.
For a successful completion of the first-degree course, a student should
possess an adequate command over English, be able to express himself with
reasonable ease and felicity, understand lectures in it and avail himself of
its literature. Therefore adequate emphasis will have to be laid on its study
right from the school stage. English should be the most
useful Library Language, in higher education and our most significant window on
the outside world.”
The
case for the teaching and learning of English in India even after
regionalisation of the medium could not have been stated with greater clarity
or force and it is precisely to this statement that we have to draw the pointed
attention of parents, teachers and educationists who are at the moment confused
on the future place and significance of English in the Indian curriculum. The
Parliamentary Committee which studied the recommendations of the Kothari
Commission has also recommended a three language pattern of which English is an
integral part. It is, therefore, evident that all shades of opinion in the
country, from the pedogogic to the popular, have emphasised the importance of
continuing the study of English in our schools and colleges even after the
medium of education has been completely and successfully regionalised. If India
is truly committed to the goal of establishing a modernising society based,
among other things, on science and technology, she cannot afford to turn her
back on the study of a world language. While this world language could be
Russian or German for some other country it has to be English in the case of
India, in view of the enormous advantage that the nation already has for the
pursuit of this language. The Kothari Commission speaks of the study of other
international languages also and even recommends the establishment of Japanese,
Russian, French and German colleges. While no one would take any exception to
such admirable suggestions, it is certain that English will be India’s largest
window on the outside world and it will be therefore worth-while to know what
is the basic quantum and quality as well as the objectives which we should
prescribe for the study of this language in our schools and colleges.
The
Gokak Committee report which is the latest to arrive on the scene has
undertaken the job of spelling out such a practical programme for the study of
English in India. In fact, the following terms of reference were given by the
Government of India to this committee among others, namely, (1) the position of
English in school education as it would be when English would cease to be the
medium of instruction, (2) the extent of knowledge of
English which a student should have at the end of the secondary stage
and at the university stage with a view to maintenance of standards, (3) the
reorientation of courses in the teaching of English at the school stage in view
of the findings on (1) and (2) above, and (4) the problems involved in the
teaching of English at the school stage such as (a) the class in which the
teaching of English should begin, (b) the methods of teaching to be employed,
(c) the preparation of text-books and handbooks for teachers and (d) the
preparation of teachers of English for schools in adequate numbers. As the
purpose of this paper is mainly to relieve the doubt in the public mind about
the exact place and significance of the study of English in our school
curriculum, of the future, I do not propose to examine in detail the chapters
of the Committee’s report on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th items of the terms of
reference above as these chapters are largely technical in character and deal
with points like the exact class in which the study of English should begin,
the advantages of the structural method of teaching English as compared with
the grammar and translation method which earlier dominated the teaching of
English in India and the role of training colleges, English Language
Institutes, both regional and central in training English language teachers for
both schools and colleges.
It
would, however, be of some interest to the common man to know the broad
assumptions of this committee in regard to the depth and extent to which
English should be taught in order to develop in our students the required
degree of both comprehension and expression. The Committee takes as the basis
of its recommendations the emerging pattern of 12 years schooling followed by a
three-year first degree. It envisages two levels of achievement in the study of
English by the end of the 12th, namely, lower and higher. It envisages a
minimum period of eight years of study both for the lower and higher levels,
though the students aiming at the higher level will have to put in 8 hours of
study per week at the higher secondary stage instead of the six which students
aiming at the lower level are expected to do. The lower level aims at a
reasonable competence in expression but a much higher standard of comprehension
of both spoken and written English. The higher level, however, expects
attainment of equal levels of both comprehension and expression. With regard to
the method the committee clearly recommends the structural approach which is
based on the most up-to date principles of linguistics and also provides in
some of its appendices the number of items both structural and lexical to be
mastered by the pupil at the end of each year of study. A comprehensive
programme of teacher training for the stupendous task of teaching
English effectively in the large number of middle (upper primary in Andhra
Pradesh) and secondary schools has also been attempted by the Committee. As I
already observed, these are matters of special interest and importance to the
English specialist, the teacher-educator and the educational administrator
charged with the exclusive responsibility of implementing an effective
programme of English teaching in schools and colleges. But what should interest
as well as reassure those interested in the quality of our educational system
is that even after its replacement by regional languages as the medium of
instruction in the universities, the study of English both at school and
college will remain a must for all those who would like to keep pace with the
tremendous explosion in knowledge in the world outside our parochial frontiers,
in the sphere of not only science and technology but also the social sciences
and humanities.