Sou

a response to Mark Tally

Rama Mathew

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Introduction I would like to attempt an analysis through Indian eyes of the current
role and status of English in India, and what can be done to turn it to
advantage. Before I make my comments on some of the specific points
that Mark Tully has made, I must admit that I am largely in agreement
with him, especially about the problems that the 'unhealthy hangover
from colonialism' has given rise to. Having said that, I must hasten to
add that I do not completely subscribe to the answers he puts forward.

A link language I would like to endorse Tully's comment that we should not maintain
English above other Indian languages, but should rather see that other
languages flourish so that the culture and civilization, of which language
is a manifestation, can survive. English is the key external link language,
but should not be given a dominant position internally. In our relations
with the rest of the world, English will help us to achieve globalization,
modernization, and an economy that will ensure a qualitatively better
life for all of us. But this does not necessarily mean that English, or
indeed Hindi, should be link languages within the country.
We must remember that India is a multilingual country. We have an
edge over monolingual countries in that we acquire two, or three, or
sometimes four languages with ease, and use them for a variety of
purposes. English is one of those languages, albeit with a big difference;
it has hegemonic tendencies, and brings with it the cultural and academic
tradition of the colonizers.
The question that is of concern here is, how do we deal with a legacy that
we have been forced to inherit? The answer very definitely is not by
'making' another (Indian) language the dominant language. This would
lead to resistance from different quarters for reasons which are
grounded firmly in prejudice and inequalities, and which surface
whenever the notion of a lingua franca for the country is discussed.
Therefore it seems that the question of a link language itself is
problematic.

The three The key question is that of multilingual education. As Agnihotri and
language policy Khanna (1995) rightly point out in their introduction, we need to
capitalize on the asset children have, i.e. fluency in two or three
languages even before they enter school, by creating a meta-linguistic
awareness, and translating the multilingual and multicultural ethos into
concrete classroom transactions. We will also need to work on the
EL T Journal Volume 51/2 April 1997 © Oxford University Press 1997 165
 psyche of our students (and parents), who equate good education with
English-medium education. One often hears the comment, 'My mother/
father is not educated, she/he doesn't know English'. We would of
course be naive to think that this will be an easy job.
With the exception of a couple of states, India has a language policy
which provides for three languages to be learnt in school. But given the
present unhealthy situation in which English-medium schools, however
badly run, have better facilities, and attract better-qualified teachers,
parents, and children, the state-run schools have little to offer by way of

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good education in general, let alone competence in three languages.
But then, education on the whole is in a pitiable state: the curriculum is
irrelevant to students' real-life needs; the examination system
encourages cramming, and has a very harmful backwash on teaching
and learning; and teachers are not competent to handle a learner-
centred classroom. Therefore the three-language policy tends not to
work, and students have to learn three separate languages, which do not
feed into one another in terms of teaching or learning. This is also true
of the bilingual schools like the Kendriya Vidyalayas 1 and the Navodaya
Vidyalayas 2 , which are found throughout India.

Curriculum There are instances of a few curricular reforms in recent years. The
reform English Curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education 3
(CBSE) has been revised by experts, with the intensive involvement of
teachers. This has involved the development of new syllabuses, teaching
materials, testing procedures, and teacher training initiatives. The texts
and activities in the books reflect to a considerable extent the culture
and life of India. The examination scheme is largely skill-based, and
encourages learners to practise reading unseen texts and writing
different kinds of texts for different purposes. The CBSE-ELT
Curriculum Implementation Study has been set up to monitor and
evaluate the course in operation, and results indicate that it has, by and
large, had a beneficial backwash, except in areas where there seem to be
some difficulties, not necessarily because of the new English course, but
because of fundamental problems in administering a standardized
national curriculum uniformly throughout the country.

However, that is only one part of the story. The CBSE ELT Project
referred to above (funded by the Overseas Development Administra-
tion (ODA), and supported by the CBSE) is an example of how English
is prioritized over the teaching of other languages such as Hindi and
Sanskrit. It is also significant that this project is set within the context of
the English-medium stream (Course A) and not the Hindi-medium
stream (Course B). I believe the reason why the project had to focus on
English language teaching (and not Hindi or any other regional
language) is because it was paid for with British money. But why did
it have to be carried out in the English-medium stream, where students
are quite competent in English compared to their counterparts in Hindi/
regional language-medium streams? I believe the answer is that the
166 Rama Mathew
 organizations responsible for the Hindi/regional language school
systems were not terribly keen on revising their syllabuses!
There has since been a change in the policy of the funding agencies: the
ODA, the European Commission, and the World Bank are all now
concentrating on primary education in state schools. At this level,
education is delivered through the vernacular.
However, at whatever level, the key issues are the same: the relevance of
the curriculum, the assumptions it makes about learner levels and needs,
and the quality of education it imparts. If we want education to help us to

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solve problems of illiteracy, empowerment of women, health, and so on,
we will need to start from where learners are, i.e. take into account then-
languages, aspirations, motivations, and capabilities, and build on them.
For the underprivileged, English medium education, however impover-
ished, is a dream they would like to see come true. But the possibilities it
seems to promise are, in practice, unattainable. Even when students do not
drop out, what we have at the end of schooling are disillusioned teenagers,
ill-equipped for jobs which require either English or regional languages.

The role of There is another task that we need to undertake along with multilingual
parents schooling: educating parents, however illiterate they may be, is an urgent
priority as we operationalize multilingualism in classrooms. The support
and involvement of both parents and teachers is essential.
A small-scale project of this kind is being tried out on the CBSE-ELT
Curriculum Implementation Study, where parents, principals, and
teachers of other languages and subjects are being oriented to what a
learner-centred classroom means in terms of the kind of work learners are
required to do in class, the kind of support parents can give at home, the
notion of an acceptable (Indian) English norm for the class, etc. The
following examples illustrate the importance of securing parental support.
A school attached to a central university, which offers only English-
medium education to children of its employees (both teaching and non-
teaching), tried to find out from parents how many would like a mother-
tongue medium stream, since experience had shown that for a majority
of the students English-medium education was difficult. The response
showed that the parents were not willing to accept a change, because
they wanted their children to get better jobs than they had themselves
(personal communication with the English teacher of the school).
Another example is the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project
(APPEP). Although one of its aims is to increase enrolment in
vernacular-medium primary schools, English-medium schools even in
villages seem to attract a substantial number of parents compared to
those supporting the high-profile project. Students from these private
schools have to switch to government schools subsequently, since
English-medium schools do not have permission to continue beyond
class V (age 9-10) (personal communication with the Social Develop-
ment Officer, APPEP).
English in India: a response to Mark Tully 167
 Conclusion Phillipson (1996: 165) sums up what I am trying to argue for:
Multilingual schooling.is a complex topic, that it is difficult to do
justice to briefly, but the important issue is that in a multilingual
society, education should be multilingual rather than 'X-medium' or
'Y-medium', terms which implicitly exclude or subtract languages.
Robertson (1996: 35) is of the view that
Culture goes where culture wants to go and is not entirely
controllable. What 'education' can do is ride a trend, pick up a

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cultural theme, explore it, give children a sense of its relative value,
and attempt to enrich the experience either by providing alternatives
or by the exposure of issues from within the experience itself.
Multilingual education should be our primary concern in a country as
large as India. It will help us to preserve the diverse cultures that we are
so proud of, and will allow us to participate in international activities
without being guilty of leading the majority of the population up the
garden path.
Received October 1996

Notes secondary levels for students in all schools

1 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) are governed by
the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, an autono-
mous organization set up by the Ministry of
Human Resource Development (MHRD) of
the Government of India to cater for the
children of defence and other central govern-
ment employees in transferable jobs. Located
all over the country, the KVs follow the CBSE's
English Course A, meant for the English-
medium stream, but offer social studies through
the Hindi medium.
2 Navodaya Vidyalayas are governed by the
Navodaya Vidyalaya Samithi, an autonomous
organization set up by the MHRD to cater to
the needs of gifted children, predominantly
from rural areas. Located in the districts of
different states (with the exception of two
states), the scheme seeks to promote national
integration through quality education. The
medium of instruction is the mother tongue/
regional language up to class VIII, (age 12-13)
and offers the CBSE's English Course B, meant
for the Hindi-medium stream.
3 The CBSE is a national Board which adminis-
ters examination at the secondary and higher
affiliated to the CBSE.
References
Agnihotri, R. K. and A. L. Khanna. (eds.) 1995.
English Language Teaching in India. New
Delhi: Sage.
Phillipson, R. 1996. 'Linguistic imperialism: Afri-
can perspectives'. ELT Journal 50/2: 160-67.
Robertson, R. 1996. 'The English singularity: a
view from Scotland' in Focus on English I. New
Delhi: British Council.
The author
Rama Mathew teaches in the Department of
Evaluation at the Central Institute of English
and Foreign Languages (CIEFL), Hyderabad,
India. Her areas of interest and specialization
include testing in the classroom, curriculum
evaluation, and teacher development. She is
Project Director of the CBSE-ELT Curriculum
Implementation Study funded by the ODA and
CBSE, which studies the concept of teacher-as-
researcher and evaluator.

168 Rama Mathew