U’khand govt eyes English medium in schools, RSS sees red

DEHRADUN: The Trivendra Singh Rawat government in the state wants to introduce English as the medium for instruction in the government-run schools in the state, but the Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is not okay with it.

RSS said that the world-over, there is an inclination towards teaching in mother tongue, therefore there was no need to blindly follow English.

The organisation has urged that the education ministry’s decision be debated before it is implemented.

The Uttarakhand education department intends to introduce English as a teaching medium in a phased manner from the next academic year. Initially, science will be taught in the English medium from class 3, in stead of Hindi . Education minister Arvind Pandey said English is the need of the time.

However, RSS is not convinced Narendra Thakur, deputy head of the publicity wing of RSS, said those who learn in Hindi are nowhere ‘inferior’, and questioned the BJP government’s decision for introducing English

The RSS leader has previously expressed his feelings on the issue of ‘mother tongue’ in a programme organised by RSS in Dehradun. BJP state president Ajay Bhatt said, “Decision will be taken after taking stakeholders into confidence”.

Uttarakhand has 78.8% literacy against the all-India average of 74.04%. The literacy rate of men is higher at 87.4% in comparison with women’s 70%. However , government schools run on the old syllabus having a tough time in competing with public schools.