<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->These statistics might show a bias one way or the other. If there is no difference, there is no problem, but if it can be shown that regional language students are suffering in some way - it means that there are institutionalized biases against regional language students.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
sengotuvel, that is a no-brainer really. Oh yes, regional language based students suffer many hardships today. Statistical analysis may not even be needed on this one. There is a huge barrier that a regional language based SSC student has to face in his/her carrier in comparison to his/her English-medium counterpart. His/her chances of success are at least 25% less (I came up with that number after some thought) than a student of a similar IQ and skills but having English proficiency.
Acknowledging the above fact is an easier and rather a less challenging part. Here is the real struggle sengotuvel, in analyzing the root causes of WHY regional language students, donât fare as well as the English based students in the competition.
Let me put some possible root causes:
A) The quality of education in the skills needed - Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Biology slowly becoming lower in regional language. (This was not true until 15 years back. Still is not true in B class cities. But with the tilting of balance i.e. middle class realizing that English is the easier route to success, they are sending their children to English-medium - and therefore resulting quality of regional language schools is dipping. Quality has got to do with the quality of student intake. So this is a chain-reaction process)
B) The entrance process (not just the exams, but the whole paraphernalia - the preparation, course material, counseling, self-confidence, attitude, peer pressures)
C) During-the-course challenges. This is HUGE. IITs have now started to take a second look here. I know this for a fact that IIT Kanpur conducts additional special classes in Hindi in the 1st year of BTech to support the non-English students. Several Engineering colleges conduct special English classes, although it remains a routine only.
Now, no matter how much one tries, since the medium of instruction IS English, there is always a disadvantage for the non-English student. He/she has to do a lot of extra work to just come upto the speed. Results in competitive disadvantage.
D) IIM or other Biz School Entrance. The real challenge and disadvantage starts here. Let us face it - corporate India, and our so called "business leadership schools" are the best groomed Maculayist brown sahibs. To get into a top business school - not just knowledge of English , but very sound knowledge of English is necessary - and that filters out most of the regional language crowd right there. Full stop to the most vernacular folks here. Majority I have known have taken the next option available, which is to go on to specialize in Technical skills. Many drop out here.
E) Campus placements. Again, for job selection, the process is such that it greatly favours the knowledge of English (in name of 'communication skills'), therefore again a natural disadvantage. I must mention one pleasant note here. This is somewhat a blessing in disguise. A couple of my classmates in the post grad, who were from vernacular SSC b/g, did not make it to the MNCs during the campus placement. Both of them were simply BRILLIANTs, but having disadvantage in English. (One Tamil other Telugu). (Out of compulsion and not choice-) They went on to join the DRDL and are now in Ballistic Missile Development Program and very satisfied with themselves.
F) English is hip, and fashionable! At least the media and overall society makes it that way. This makes the vernacular fellow too imitate the "English"- resulting in a third rate Tinglish and Hinglish.
G) sengotuvel, now let me mention the most tragic part - the bias that the whole macaulavian Indian society carries against the Vernacular-medium education. The bias that vernacular students are the least fortunate, least intellectual, lowest of the line, who got no seats or could not afford an English education. (so I can't blame you when you thought that non-English education means producing ayas, drivers, and domestic helps. You are not alone).
This bias is really what is the biggest barrier on the path of a vernacular SSC student. He/she knows the bias, and thatâs why, when he/she succeeds, he/she is NEVER going to let his children go through it, and opts for an English one. Vishwas had mentioned other aspect of this 'social stigma' : in some Indian societies, even finding a good bride is hard for a vernacular-educated boy, leave aside a decent job!!!
These I feel, are some root causes and barriers before a vernacular student. No question that bias does exis against him. Yes it does. The whole system is tilted against him.
Now, I found a good correspondence, written by an Engineering Professor on the topic:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Every developed country, be it Japan, Germany or France has made its language of scientific discourse the same as that of the mother tongue of the people. A study of the educational history of these nations also shows that at some point of time in their history they made a conscious decision in favour of the mother tongue. The Indian Education Commission1 under the Chairmanship of D. S. Kothari, then Chairman of UGC, in its report observed that the use of the mother tongue âcan make scientific and technical knowledge more easily accessible to the people and thus help not only in the progress of industrialization but also in the wider dissemination of science and scientific outlookâ.
Making a plea for adopting the mother tongue as the medium of education in schools and colleges, the report also quoted Rabindra Nath Tagoresâs Convocation
address at the Calcutta University as follows:
âIn no country in the world except India, is to be seen this divorce of the language of education from the language of the pupil. Full hundred years have not elapsed since Japan took its initiation into Western culture. At the outset she had to take
recourse to textbooks written in foreign languages, but from the very first, her objective had been to arrive at the stage of ranging freely over the subjects of study in the language of the country. It was because Japan had recognized the need of such studies, not as an ornament for a select section of her citizens, but for giving power and culture to all of them, that she deemed it to be of prime importance to make them universally available to her people. And in this effort of Japan to gain proficiency in the Western arts and sciences, which was to give her the means of self-defence against the predatory cupidity of foreign powers, to qualify her to take an honoured place in the comity of nations, no trouble or expense was spared. Least of all was there the miserly folly of keeping such learning out of easy reach, within the confines of a foreign languageâ.
Concerns have been expressed in the pages of Current Science on the poor
current contribution of Indian scientists to the world pool of scientific knowledge.
One of the main reasons for this state of affairs is our failure to act on the suggestions made in the learned reports like the one quoted above. Some suggestions for action can be made as follows:
All India institutions like IITs and IIMs can act as pioneers in this regard by conducting a parallel regional language section in addition to the English language
sections as conducted now. For example, IIT Madras can have Tamil medium sections while IIT, Kanpur can have Hindi medium sections. The educational resources like laboratories can be shared by both the media students. Massive Government funding following the example of Japan can be made for the training of faculty, preparation of text books in the regional languages. The successful Regional Language Educational model developed at the All India institutions can be later replicated in other institutions.
1. Education and National Development. Report of Education Commission 1964â66.
National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, 1964.
(written by V. PARAMASIVAN, Hindustan College of Engineering, Kanchipuram 603 103, India e-mail: hetc@vsnl.com)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
sengotuvel, that is a no-brainer really. Oh yes, regional language based students suffer many hardships today. Statistical analysis may not even be needed on this one. There is a huge barrier that a regional language based SSC student has to face in his/her carrier in comparison to his/her English-medium counterpart. His/her chances of success are at least 25% less (I came up with that number after some thought) than a student of a similar IQ and skills but having English proficiency.
Acknowledging the above fact is an easier and rather a less challenging part. Here is the real struggle sengotuvel, in analyzing the root causes of WHY regional language students, donât fare as well as the English based students in the competition.
Let me put some possible root causes:
A) The quality of education in the skills needed - Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Biology slowly becoming lower in regional language. (This was not true until 15 years back. Still is not true in B class cities. But with the tilting of balance i.e. middle class realizing that English is the easier route to success, they are sending their children to English-medium - and therefore resulting quality of regional language schools is dipping. Quality has got to do with the quality of student intake. So this is a chain-reaction process)
B) The entrance process (not just the exams, but the whole paraphernalia - the preparation, course material, counseling, self-confidence, attitude, peer pressures)
C) During-the-course challenges. This is HUGE. IITs have now started to take a second look here. I know this for a fact that IIT Kanpur conducts additional special classes in Hindi in the 1st year of BTech to support the non-English students. Several Engineering colleges conduct special English classes, although it remains a routine only.
Now, no matter how much one tries, since the medium of instruction IS English, there is always a disadvantage for the non-English student. He/she has to do a lot of extra work to just come upto the speed. Results in competitive disadvantage.
D) IIM or other Biz School Entrance. The real challenge and disadvantage starts here. Let us face it - corporate India, and our so called "business leadership schools" are the best groomed Maculayist brown sahibs. To get into a top business school - not just knowledge of English , but very sound knowledge of English is necessary - and that filters out most of the regional language crowd right there. Full stop to the most vernacular folks here. Majority I have known have taken the next option available, which is to go on to specialize in Technical skills. Many drop out here.
E) Campus placements. Again, for job selection, the process is such that it greatly favours the knowledge of English (in name of 'communication skills'), therefore again a natural disadvantage. I must mention one pleasant note here. This is somewhat a blessing in disguise. A couple of my classmates in the post grad, who were from vernacular SSC b/g, did not make it to the MNCs during the campus placement. Both of them were simply BRILLIANTs, but having disadvantage in English. (One Tamil other Telugu). (Out of compulsion and not choice-) They went on to join the DRDL and are now in Ballistic Missile Development Program and very satisfied with themselves.
F) English is hip, and fashionable! At least the media and overall society makes it that way. This makes the vernacular fellow too imitate the "English"- resulting in a third rate Tinglish and Hinglish.
G) sengotuvel, now let me mention the most tragic part - the bias that the whole macaulavian Indian society carries against the Vernacular-medium education. The bias that vernacular students are the least fortunate, least intellectual, lowest of the line, who got no seats or could not afford an English education. (so I can't blame you when you thought that non-English education means producing ayas, drivers, and domestic helps. You are not alone).
This bias is really what is the biggest barrier on the path of a vernacular SSC student. He/she knows the bias, and thatâs why, when he/she succeeds, he/she is NEVER going to let his children go through it, and opts for an English one. Vishwas had mentioned other aspect of this 'social stigma' : in some Indian societies, even finding a good bride is hard for a vernacular-educated boy, leave aside a decent job!!!
These I feel, are some root causes and barriers before a vernacular student. No question that bias does exis against him. Yes it does. The whole system is tilted against him.
Now, I found a good correspondence, written by an Engineering Professor on the topic:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Every developed country, be it Japan, Germany or France has made its language of scientific discourse the same as that of the mother tongue of the people. A study of the educational history of these nations also shows that at some point of time in their history they made a conscious decision in favour of the mother tongue. The Indian Education Commission1 under the Chairmanship of D. S. Kothari, then Chairman of UGC, in its report observed that the use of the mother tongue âcan make scientific and technical knowledge more easily accessible to the people and thus help not only in the progress of industrialization but also in the wider dissemination of science and scientific outlookâ.
Making a plea for adopting the mother tongue as the medium of education in schools and colleges, the report also quoted Rabindra Nath Tagoresâs Convocation
address at the Calcutta University as follows:
âIn no country in the world except India, is to be seen this divorce of the language of education from the language of the pupil. Full hundred years have not elapsed since Japan took its initiation into Western culture. At the outset she had to take
recourse to textbooks written in foreign languages, but from the very first, her objective had been to arrive at the stage of ranging freely over the subjects of study in the language of the country. It was because Japan had recognized the need of such studies, not as an ornament for a select section of her citizens, but for giving power and culture to all of them, that she deemed it to be of prime importance to make them universally available to her people. And in this effort of Japan to gain proficiency in the Western arts and sciences, which was to give her the means of self-defence against the predatory cupidity of foreign powers, to qualify her to take an honoured place in the comity of nations, no trouble or expense was spared. Least of all was there the miserly folly of keeping such learning out of easy reach, within the confines of a foreign languageâ.
Concerns have been expressed in the pages of Current Science on the poor
current contribution of Indian scientists to the world pool of scientific knowledge.
One of the main reasons for this state of affairs is our failure to act on the suggestions made in the learned reports like the one quoted above. Some suggestions for action can be made as follows:
All India institutions like IITs and IIMs can act as pioneers in this regard by conducting a parallel regional language section in addition to the English language
sections as conducted now. For example, IIT Madras can have Tamil medium sections while IIT, Kanpur can have Hindi medium sections. The educational resources like laboratories can be shared by both the media students. Massive Government funding following the example of Japan can be made for the training of faculty, preparation of text books in the regional languages. The successful Regional Language Educational model developed at the All India institutions can be later replicated in other institutions.
1. Education and National Development. Report of Education Commission 1964â66.
National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, 1964.
(written by V. PARAMASIVAN, Hindustan College of Engineering, Kanchipuram 603 103, India e-mail: hetc@vsnl.com)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->