சொன்னால் விரோதம் ஆயினும் சொல்கிறேன்!
What is the aim of education?
The answer to this is same as “what is the aim of life?” says Peters, a professor of
philosophy of education at the University of London. So what is the aim of
life? The answer can be spiritual, philosophical or materialistic. In olden
days, people were clear about what they wanted in life and based on that gone
after the kind of education that was suitable for them. They learned the three
Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) and those after material pursuits learned the
hereditary skill in addition.
Where are we today? Today also we need these, the three Rs and skill to support our material progress.
So any educational policy of the government must be based on these. Does the
newly rolled out National Educational Policy 2020 fulfill this?
The first shocker is the promotion of “Multi-lingualism”
at formative years aimed at cutting off ‘Phoren” English but forcing down “Phoren Hindi, phoren Marathi, phoren Bengali
……and so on” for the child of a different mother tongue.
So, the two of the three Rs are going to be drawn
from three different languages, none of them going to be of help to material
progress of the child later. Where
just one language can do, the government is thrusting three languages for the
fault of having born in multi-lingual India. That one language
happens to be English is what troubles the Government. But that language
makes my ward expand his frontiers of knowledge is no concern to the
Government. That one language enables my ward to present his findings in
journals read by reputed scientists around the world is of no concern to the
government. What the government wants is to make India “Ek Bharat Sreshtha Bharat” says this link https://taxguru.in/corporate-law/national-education-policy-2020-nep-2020.html
For a concept like this – of promoting Classical
languages, regional languages, why sacrifice my ward’s time, youth, aspirations and capabilities?
Regional language development is the responsibility of the State governments. Ek
Bharat Sreshtha Bharat comes by cultural unity and
not by forcing three languages through my ward’s tongue – none of which are
going to fill his stomach. It is a lone battle for each child when it comes to
choosing the subjects of choice and University of choice in the midst of
oppressing reservation policy which no government is going to do away
with.
It is even funny reading the claims of NEP on multiple entry and exit with certification.
What is the cost of it in the job market? Will Tata or Infosys recruit my ward with such certificates?
Such entry and exit may have limited use for very less number of people. For
the majority, proper streams of subjects learned through the medium that is
most valuable in today’s world is the need of the hour. Why many people with
professional degree are not able to land up in good jobs but are turned away with the advice
to undertake a course in English? This is common sight in Tamilnadu,
mainly because it chose a bad education policy tinged with regional language chauvinism.
The same is now being promoted by the BJP government at the national level through
NEP2020.
The next deception is the claim that the present 10+2 stands
scrapped. NEP 2020 proposes 5+3+3+4 curricular structure starting from the age of
3, with 3 years of pre-schooling (one additional year before LKG and UKG) and
12 years of schooling. In what way it is different from 10+2? With the burden of exams at 3rd, 5th
and 8th Grade (Standard in the current system) and Board exams at 10th
and 12th Grade, it is nothing but the old wine in a new cup. Nothing
changes for the kids and their parents. Only additional
burden in the form of ‘phoren’ languages of India and a bleak future once the
student steps out of school.
The next issue that pops up is whether this policy
is applicable to CBSE or all boards. Since
education is in concurrent list, I wonder how this can be forced on all States.
The claim of “universalization of education” gives a
deja vu of ‘uniform
syllabus’ introduced by Karunanidhi
that killed education in State Board schools of Tamilnadu. It saw a migration
to CBSE stream. Now with NEP2020, there is going to be a flight from CBSE to ICSE and international schools. We
are going to see a vertical
division of the society between haves and have-nots with haves (who can
afford the hefty cost of those schools) rising up in the ladder with better
access given by English knowledge.
All those who are against English as medium of
instruction are language chauvinists, Hindi belt BJP-ians who struggle to
connect with non-Hindi speaking people, think-tanks of foreign origin or think-tanks
who made English speaking countries their homes, and who are still awed at
Japan, Germany, Russia, China etc for their strides with local languages
without blinking an eye on the local conditions. China may curb English, but Chinese
want to learn English. I hear from sources how they feel disadvantaged at not
being able to promote their researches at the world level. India should not
behave like China in language policy. I find either political motives or
political leanings among the supporters of NEP2020, but can see none among them a struggling parent
for whom education means an investment for future. Definitely the language
policy at school and High school is going to stunt their growth and slash their
dreams of making it big in life.
I am just fed up with their arguments which are same
as the ones I have been hearing right from the 90s. At that time the issue was
around English as ‘link language’. The present
problem is also because of the same reason - the BJP government not willing to accept English
as the link language.
In the place of learning just one link language
which can be used within India and outside as well, this Government is forcing
three languages from the pool of Indian languages for the tiny tots until 8th
standard. After the 8th grade there is no way the student can learn the
subjects through English. So successfully the BJP government
is closing the opportunities for all the students to learn what is happening
outside India. I can easily foresee how future-Indians are going to be
like – having seen how the Tamil-only- learners have turned out to be now. And BJP wants only such people – the “Nationalists” whose identity lies only in
their national tongue which is ultimately going to be Hindi!
Related post: Leave
the language to us, Amit Shah ji
