A very English Affair

 Rema Nagarajan, 5 December 2009

Dinesh Kumar, a migrant from Vaishali district in Bihar, is an electrician in Delhi. Though making ends meet is a challenge, he is not willing to AT A SCHOOL NEAR YOU: Even small neighbourhood schools such as East Delhi’s Modern Happy (left) and New Titiksha Public (above) teach in both Hindi and English send his two children to a Hindi medium government school where education is free. The school fees and related expenditure exceed Rs 2,000 per month and form a quarter of the roughly Rs 8,000 that Kumar earns each month. But he is happy to foot the expense. "I want my kids to study in an English medium school. If they don't know English, what future will they have?" asks Kumar. It is such reasoning that helps explain the huge increase in enrolment in English medium schools, making it now the second largest medium of instruction in schools across the country. According to estimates, just over 10 per cent of the Indian population speaks English. But, it is a growing number and the rate of growth outpaces most vernacular languages. 

The big exception is Hindi, which, of course, is in a different league with 41 per cent of the country's population speaking in that tongue. KING OF QUEEN'S The English numbers are grossly underestimated , according to Professor Arun Mehta of the National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) that collects data on children enrolled in schools across the country. "Lakhs of children studying in unrecognised English medium schools are not counted in most official data as that only includes recognised schools. So, the numbers could actually be much higher," says Mehta. As many countries enter an 'educational arms race' to acquire and maintain international competitiveness, English assumes even greater significance. 

A recent British Council report on the growth of English across the world says that Asia, especially India and China , will hold the key to the long-term future of English as a global language. The report warns that China could outdo India in English. China is said to add about 20 million English speakers each year with its new policy to make English compulsory in primary schools. The report observes: "India has been triumphantly playing the English card in establishing its global leadership in outsourcing and the BPO industry. 

Furthermore, the capital of the new economy in India, Bangalore, lies in the south where regional languages are, in linguistic terms, more remote from Hindi than English, and where use of English has long represented a political challenge to the linguistic hegemony of the north." In the southern states in particular - and outside the Hindi belt in general - English has always found greater acceptance. Education is almost entirely in English in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Over half the enrolment in the other north eastern states, barring Tripura, is in English medium. Hindi does not figure at all in this part of the country. 

LIP SERVICE Some 60 years after Hindi was adopted as the official language - along with English - it has not quite become the country's link language as was envisaged. This is despite the crores that the central government spends every year on promoting the "raj bhasha" . The resistance to Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states, which took the form of language riots during the sixties, is still far from blunted, as many recent events have demonstrated. 

Even today, any suggestion that Hindi is the "national language" or "rashtra bhasha" is met with stiff opposition and those who advocate its cause are likely to be given a frosty look and the riposte that India being a multilingual country has no single "national language" . The point was made succinctly when in the early '90s Mulayam Singh Yadav, then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, wrote a letter in Hindi to his counterpart in Kerala, E K Nayanar. Nayanar gave a telling response by sending a reply in his language, Malayalam. While Hindi was not widely spoken in Thiruvananthapuram, in Lucknow, hardly anyone knew Malayalam! That linguistic feelings run deep became evident recently when Union Railway minister Mamata Bannerjee bowed to pressure from various states, especially Maharashtra, to hold the railway recruitment exams in local languages. Earlier, these exams were administered only in English and Hindi, which non-Hindi speaking states argued, with some justification, gave an unfair advantage to those from Hindi-speaking states. 

A few years back, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal requested that Tamil and Bengali be allowed in their respective high courts. They quoted Article 348(2) of the constitution and relevant sections of the Official Languages Act 1963 that entitle Hindi-speaking states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to use their official language - Hindi - in their respective high courts. The request was rejected. LINGUISTIC LINK In 2006, when India asked for Hindi to be included as one of the languages used in the United Nations, saying it was spoken by a substantial proportion of the world population, the biggest opposition to this move ironically came from within India, from the non-Hindi speaking states. There couldn't be clearer evidence of the fact that Hindi is not yet accepted as a pan-Indian "link language" . 

Robert Bellarmine, former English Studies Officer of the British Council, South India, feels that in India, which is more like a group of nations, one local language being privileged over another would never be acceptable. "Hence, English is useful, as there is wider political acceptability. It is also the most preferred language for education and in the job market. For the integrity of the nation too, it might be better if English is a link language," says Bellarmine, who is also a fellow at the Center for English and Foreign Language Studies in Hyderabad. It's a logic many Indians would find difficult to refute. 

Times Insight Group

In 3 yrs, English rises to No. 2 medium

Rema Nagarajan, TNN 5 December 2009, 05:03am IST

While the Marathi manoos and various others fight over the supremacy of languages, English has quietly marched on and become the second largest

Twitter Facebook Share
Email Print Save Comment
medium in India's primary schools, after Hindi.

In 2006, English as a medium of instruction was fourth -- behind Hindi, Bengali and Marathi in that order -- but by 2007 it had climbed to second place and grew even further in 2008, beginning to eat into the Hindi numbers too (see detailed report in the latest edition of TOI-Crest).

Regional language medium schools have witnessed steady erosion in their share over the years, and in some cases even in the absolute numbers, as parents seem to have decided that English is the passport to a bright future for their children.

Data collected by the National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) as a part of DISE, the monitoring system developed for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, shows that the number of those opting for English medium from class I-VIII has grown by 150% between 2003 and 2008, while the number of students opting for Hindi grew by just 32%.

The count for 2008 is more robust than in previous years, says NUEPA. Of the total number of students surveyed by DISE, about 18.8 crore, data on the medium of instruction was available for over 92%. "The quality of data and its collection has vastly improved. However, the data pertains only to recognized schools. In most states, there are thousands of unrecognized schools, most of which are English-medium schools. Hence, the number of those studying in English-medium schools could actually be even higher," says Prof Arun Mehta of NUEPA.

The states with the highest number of students in English-medium schools have remained unchanged from 2004 till 2008 -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In the two top states, almost a fifth of all enrolled students are studying in English-medium schools. The top three are followed by Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala in that order. Madhya Pradesh is the lone Hindi-speaking state in the list of the top 10 states in terms of enrolment in English medium.

The highest jump in the number of English-medium students between 2004 and 2008 was in Maharashtra, about 11 lakh, followed by Andhra Pradesh (9.7 lakh), Tamil Nadu (9.6 lakh), Delhi (5.5 lakh) and Jammu and Kashmir about 5 lakh.

Earlier, in 2006, most of the growth in English was in the southern states, barring Punjab and Gujarat, which also showed a jump in numbers. However, by 2008, many of the northern states too have joined the rush for English schooling. For instance, Haryana has recorded the highest growth, with the number of children in English-medium schools going up more than seven times between 2004 and 2008, from over 20,000 to 1.6 lakh.

Similarly, in Rajasthan, students opting for English schooling increased more than three times, from over 60,000 in 2004 to nearly 2.2 lakh by 2008. The growth between 2007 and 2008 alone was 130%.

Again, in Madhya Pradesh, the number of students opting for English schooling almost trebled from 1.6 lakh to 4.8 lakh. In Delhi, well over a third (37%) of all enrolled children are in English-medium schools while the proportion of those in Hindi medium has fallen from 76% to 61% between 2004 and 2008. As before, Punjab and Gujarat show substantial growth in English schooling with the number doubling in Punjab and going up more than three times in Gujarat.

Right to Eduation

Right to Education Act 2009 Estimations: A Few Points for Consideration

Arun C. Mehta

November 2009

After long, the mush awaited Right to Education Bill (RTE) has just been passed by the Parliament which would play an important role in achieving Universal Elementary Education in India. The success or failure of RTE would largely depend upon how effectively the act is implemented and whether sufficient funds are allocated for the implementation of the Act.

In this direction, the first major exercise is to reliably estimate funds that would be required for successful implementation of Right to Education Act. Needless to mention that the RTE-estimation should be based upon the latest available data. One such source or rather the only source of information which provides requisite set of data is the District Information System for Education (DISE is jointly developed by the MHRD, UNICEF and NUEPA) which is latest available for the year 2008-09 with 30^th September 2008 as its date of reference. Through DISE, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan activities are being monitored and District Elementary Education Plans across the country are being developed annually which is largely based on this rich data-set. The beauty of DISE is that it provides unit-wide/school-specific data in case of all the 1.28 million schools imparting elementary education in the country. These schools are located in about 70,000 clusters in 7,000 blocks spread over 633 districts in 35 States and UTs of the country.

One of the other important considerations is that the RTE-estimation should be attempted at the national as well as for the individual State/UT level in case of all the 35 States and UTs of the country.

Perhaps the most important factor on which RTE-estimation should base upon is the child population of the age group of 6 to 14 years (5+ to 13+ years). Care should be taken in correctly considering the relevant age group child population in RTE-estimation.

Second most important task is projection of 6-14 year age population in 2009 i.e. 2008-09. The latest Census figures are available for the year 2001 but projected population made available by the Office of the Registrar General of India is available up to the year 2016 which is likely to be revised once the actual 2011Census figures are available in the light of which the existing RTE-estimates will also be required to re-look into. The RTE-estimates should not be considered as a one time affair; rather the exercise be repeated when more recent data is available.

As per the available projections, the 6-14 years children show a declining trend over a period of time. Between 2007-08 and 2008-09, 6-14 years age population in India declined to 188 million from 193 million which has got serious implications for RTE. In view of this, one has to ensure that the RTE-estimates are based on the current year’s child population i.e. 2009-10 (if not, it may significantly affect the total funds for RTE implementation). The decline in the child population is also reflected in the GER and NER as well as in the out-of-school children. Since the RTE-estimation may be primarily based on the child population, utter care should be taken in considering the current child population. The RGI projections are available by single-age population and that too in benchmark years such as 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 etc. which should be carefully used to project child population (6-14 years) in the current year (2009-10) for which RTE-estimates are being made. Compound Growth Rate can be used in projecting population in intermediary years.

The other important issue is the source of information that is been used in estimating funds. So far possible, same source of information should be used in estimating all aspects of RTE Act. One set of estimation can be based upon one source of data. There may be more than one source of information and hence there may be more than one sets of RTE-estimation. The most appropriate one can be retained out of a number of alternatives.

Preliminary estimates based on 2007-08 data suggests that the total funds for RTE implementation during the next 5 years period would be in the tune of Rs. 1.80 lakh crores (1 crore = 10 million, as reported in the Times of India). The same if estimated based on 2008-09 data, would be a little less than what is estimated based on 2007-08 data. Because of the ongoing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, a lot of improvement has taken place since 2007-08 especially in case of infrastructure in schools which is quite visible if DISE 2008-09 data is carefully analysed. More schools imparting elementary education in the country now have drinking water, toilet and other such facilities in school. Together with this drop out has also declined slightly so as the out-of-school children all which may change the RTE-estimation significantly if the same is workout based on 2008-09 data.

RTE-estimation can be worked out in a number of ways. To begin with 6 to 14 years child population in the current year may be the starting point which should either be link to current enrolment in elementary classes (I to VIII) or be divided by the pupil-teacher ratio as specified in the RTE Act to workout number of classrooms that would be required. Needless to mention that there are a large number of unrecognised schools across the country all which will be closed down (if not recognised). In Andhra Pradesh alone there are about 6,000 unrecognised schools compared to around 7,000 such schools in Punjab. In view of there been a large number of children in all such schools special efforts would be required to make so as to ensure that all these children transit from unrecognised to recognised schools; new schools can be planned in all such locations.

If number of classrooms based on 30:1 PTR is estimated, the same would take care of all children of age 6 to 14 year irrespective of whether they are in the recognised or unrecognised schools. Just projecting number of classrooms that would be required will not serve the purpose unless the distribution of schools by number of classrooms in the existing 1.28 million schools imparting elementary education is carefully analysed details of which is available from the DISE sources for the year 2008-09 in a ready to use form. The number of classrooms so projected can be used to project number of teachers that would be required which can be worked out as per the provisions specified in the RTE Act. Since the number of teachers under RTE Act is linked to number of students in a school, which vary from Primary to Upper Primary school, careful analysis of distribution of teachers in the exiting schools would be of great help in correctly estimating the additional requirement of teachers on account of RTE Act. In a number of states, a good number of teachers’ positions are lying vacant all which should be filled-up (by the states) before the enactment of RTE Act else they be subtracted from the estimated number of total additional teachers.

Like number of schools and enrolment, number of para-teachers has also grown significantly (5.19 lakh para-teachers). The estimated number of additional teachers should be adjusted to the number of para-teachers a state has. Para-teachers with adequate academic and professional qualification may be considered as teacher, others those who don’t fulfill the criteria can be treated as schools without such number of teachers.

By just projecting number of additional classrooms that would be required will serve only the limited purpose. The additional classrooms may be in the exiting schools or new schools would be required to open in view of the projected additional classrooms. RTE Act has specified minimum infrastructure in each school all which would be required to provide to all such new schools. In addition, a good number of exiting schools imparting elementary education lack minimum facilities all which should also be made available by the state before the enactment of the RTE Act or the states be given sufficient time to provide all such facilities in the school. Minimum infrastructure (as per RTE Act) to all exiting schools is the responsibility of the states and the same should not be accounted in the RTE-estimation.

As has already been suggested above that to begin with the RTE-estimation may be based on 6-14 age years’ child population. Though Government’s commitment is of 6-14 years children but a good number of under-age and over-age children are getting enrolled each year in both Primary as well as Upper Primary classes’ provisions for which would also be required to make in the RTE-estimation. Especially Government and Aided schools cannot afford to deny admission to whosoever approach for admission.

A number of provisions have been made in the RTE Act with regard to teachers and infrastructure in schools. Minimum academic and professional qualifications of teachers under RTE Act will also be specified. A careful analysis of information would reveal that a good number of teachers do not fulfill minimum requirements. What would happen to all such teachers and also schools those are lacking in infrastructure. Will all such schools be closed down, naturally not or how much time would be given to all such schools to match the RET requirements. Whether teachers recruited are as per the qualifications laid down. Which body would monitor and decide upon all such aspects of RTE Act. Definitely, an independent body, if created can monitor all aspects of RTE Act on long term regular basis for which the exiting information system would also be required to further strengthened. Making available information concerning RTE Act under the public domain will also be of great help.