While on an attempt to teach my brother a chapter that he had missed in class, I realized that the first sentence of the lesson was long enough with tough vocabularies to make me read it again before turning the dictionary. He studies in class six in a private school. Being an student of BA in Katmandu University, and still not being able to understand the sentence made me doubt if those books were readable for my brother and most of his classmates. It made me wonder about the readability of the book and if they could manage to reach to the message of the chapter by themselves. Remembering the fact that most of the time he spoilt his exams not for not-knowing the answer but for not being able to manage to make a sentence out of what he knows, made me think whether English itself has made it difficult for him to understand his class. So, I searched on the different aspects of medium of instruction in school including its academic and cultural dynamics.
English is the most widely spoken language and thus also considered the international language in today’s globalizing world. Gradually English has also been the medium of instruction among the schools around the world specially the developing countries with no exception in Asian countries including Nepal. Even government schools have gone English medium to compete with the private schools. But the probable pros and cons of it has not been well thought or seriously considered in the present context of Nepal. Analyses should be done on the different aspecta of using English medium in school, especially on elementary education. The issue of its impact on cultural dimensions, the probable consequences on the level of understanding of the subject matter or the readability of the books in foreign medium should be considered while making educational policies.
English medium schooling has been the new trend and change in today’s scenario in the development of the educational field particularly among Asian countries and in Nepal.
“..it has become the true world language of science, technology, media and business...” describes Abram de Swaan, a University Professor in Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. In his article ‘English in Social Sciences’ he states that English “.. allows to reach each and everyone who counts in the field of the natural sciences, advanced technology, mass entertainment and corporate affairs.”
In today’s mediated and globalised world English has become a must even in the local context. With English being the widely accepted language of education and medium of instruction with its other dynamics it has become the symbol of a dynamic personality in today’s society. In Nepal’s contest all private schools have taken English as their medium of education and instruction. So English has been associated as a better alternative medium of education in Nepal. With students of private school performing better in academics and being highly accepted in respective fields compared to the government school students, the trend of students shifting from government school to private schools started long ago. But in addition to it, in recent times even government schools have also started turning into English medium as a necessary step to make their students more competitive with the students of private schools.
In an article ‘Back into English’ Mahabir Paudyal, on the news about community schools in Sindhupalchok turning English medium, argues that such unprepared decisions taken to fight the dominance of private English medium schools would bring pernicious effect on the students’ performance. He further asserts that the distinction between private school and community school graduates is as good as the distinction between natives and foreigners in terms of English language proficiency stating that more than 50 percent of the students who fail the SLC exams fail in English while their counterparts from private schools fare excellently in English. He states that English was the medium of school education until the 1950s and criticizes its removal after the 1956 National Education Planning Commission’s recommendation, citing its association with the production of clerical manpower rather than instilling vocational values in people. To justify his point, he takes the issue of Madhav Nepal’s recent address at 16th SAARC summit held in Thimpu where his English was horrible. He argues if our ministers were educated in English medium, neither them nor the nation would have to face such same. But there are many more issues our minister need to learn then to address the international society and there are many ways to address the issue including the provision of a translator or a special tutor.
Troubling question is whether medium of instruction is the only reason that has caused the difference in students’ performance. Learning English as a second language is essential, but making it the primary language of instructions can also have adverse consequences.
Anirban Das in one of his article, ‘How Important Is the Medium of Education’ describes the importance of medium of instruction in every level of education and emphasizes its importance during the elementary education stating it as the time when a child is exposed to the vast world of knowledge. He further talks of the long-held debate in India on if the medium of education should be universally recognized English language or the regional language. Further explaining the pros and cons of both aspects, he explains that English is important when one grows up and goes into a professional life while regional language has an advantage of being easily understood, thus helping the students grab the right information and understand better.
So the question arises if a student who has just understood some vocabulary and few phrases and sentences, would understand different subjects in the language that isn’t familiar to them. How much would its readability be and will those books be for them or for their instructors?
Das further states of a study conducted in the US in Ramirez et al in 1991 with 2352 students which compared three sets of Spanish-speaking minority students. The first set had studied only through the English medium, the second group had started education in the Spanish medium but switched to English in one or two years, while the third group started education in the Spanish medium and switched to English after four to six years. The three groups, when tested to find out which group showed the best results in English and in educational achievement in general, showed that the third group showed the best results while the other two groups were falling way behind. He claims that this completely quashes the accepted conviction that English is the best medium of instruction all the time. He presents that for the students who don’t know English, the pressure doubles on them as they are expected to learn a foreign language with the concepts simultaneously.
In an article ‘BM vs English: a never ending debate’ written in response to the Malaysian government’s decision to stop teaching Science and Mathematics in English, Dr. Mana writes of the obvious unhappy parents who realize the advantage of using English to learn the sciences. He further confirms that using English to teach these subjects would be advantageous, especially for those who have the intention to pursue abroad studies. He further have shown that over 80 percent of the teachers were not ready to teach Science and Mathematics in English despite the huge sum spent on it. He argues that thought the students with English speaking parents have gained a lot from the previous policy, the majority of those non-English speaking students, especially in the rural areas, were completely lost for clues and had failed to grasp the subject matter in a language quite difficult for them to use or master. Even the teachers had admitted that they themselves are not prepared to teach the subjects effectively in English. He states that the majority of students at primary school level are not equipped enough to learn the subjects in English, although students have desire to learn.
“The Punjab government’s plan to introduce English as the medium of instruction in all the government schools of the province, in a phased manner, has become a heated subject as academic session 2010 approaches.” writes Khalid Khattak in his news report ‘Plan to introduce English medium sparks debate.’ He further writes that it has invited criticism on the grounds that the plan is ignoring the ground realities and that it will infringe upon rights of those who want to seek education in Urdu.
Abram de Swaan writes in his article ‘English in the Social Sciences’ that “When it comes to English as a language of science, its advantages for global communication are even more striking than in other domains. Practically the entire scholarly community in the natural sciences reads English, and the vast majority publishes articles in that language.” On his opinion about English for social science he writes “Things, however, are much more problematical when it comes to English as the language of the social sciences and the humanities. These disciplines are much more strongly bound to language. In these fields, technical terms are often very close to terms in everyday usage such as role, class and civilization.” He implies that students cannot effectively be taught the social sciences in one language only and must be intimately familiar with the language used.
The effect of such pressure on the students, their understanding of the different subjects and the quality of the class and schooling should be reanalyzed from this prospect. The whole issue of effects of such enforcement of a second language in the cultural domain still remains to be considered.
In an interview to ‘New Age Extra’ Kabir Chowdhury a National Professor, educationist and the chairman of the education policy 2009 of Bangladesh has talked about the different aspects of the education policy on the medium of education in the then newly formed constitution. He stated “In the English medium education system, there is little opportunity to develop patriotism among students … students know about England’s birds, culture ... more than they know about something elementary in our local culture…” Maximum emigration of students for further studies or work opportunities and lack of local level initiative among youth are the consequences we have already been facing. The present state of huge generational gap on cultural and traditional activities, insufficient contributions in nepali literature, music and other field can be correlated too. Degraded view about Nepalese culture and tradition among the new generations is also a very visible example that can be related to this context right now.
Arguing that the system is creating class divisions among students in our country Chowdhury has clarified “We recommend that there should be no English medium system at the primary level. If anyone wants to, they can go for Ordinary Level or Advanced Level examinations after the primary level.” Agreeing on difficulties to make English Medium authorities follow the instruction he claimed to have recommended the promulgation of an education law.
Combining the conclusions of the above research articles and text brings us to a common point. Enforcing English as medium of instruction could degrade the overall essence of the class, creating extra burden among the students. Minimum exercise of the national or native language in class activities can cause cultural deviation and degradation and creates little opportunity to develop patriotism among students. Medium of instruction of the subjects should be fixed according to the nature of the subject; like science can be preferred in English whereas social sciences and humanities should be preferred in national or mother tongue.
In today’s competitive world, it is advisable to get higher education in the English language and prepare a base for it from school only. But it should be made compulsory that at least at the primary school level everyone should learn the subjects in their national or native language.
A uniform standard for the both private and community schools should be established to avoid division among the youths and create uniformity and patriotism. Though the constitution of Nepal has provision for the right for parents to teach their children in their mother tongue, such educational policies should be properly defined in the new constitution of Nepal. Recommendation in the promulgation of an education law should also be initiated.
Das Anirban. “How Important Is The Medium Of Education” Insiderreports.19 Jun. 2010 <http://www.insiderreports.com/storypage.asp?StoryID=20028201>
Dr. Mana. “BM vs English: The never-ending debate.” Malaysiakini. 18 Jun. 2010. 19 Jun. 2010 <http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/134910>
Khattak, Khalid. “Plan to introduce English medium sparks debate” The news. 25 Jan, 2010. 19 Jun, 2010
<http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=220662>
Paudyal, Ahabir. “Back to English” The Katmandu Post. 13 May, 2010. 19 Jun 2010
<http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/05/13/oped/back-to-english/208252/>
Swaan, Abram de. “English in social sciences” Biennial Yearbook 2004. Critical Topics in Science and Scholarship (2004):135-146
Wadud, Mushfique. Personal interview. Dec, 2009. <http://www.newagebd.com/2009/dec/18/dec18/xtra_inner5.html>
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