Cartoon allegedly scoffs at English medium schools, Gandhians angry

JAIPUR: A cartoon in the education department’s monthly magazine ‘Shivira’ allegedly scoffs at the newly established Mahatma Gandhi Englis h medium schools in Rajasthan.

The cartoon published in the October edition of the magazine s hows a man s y mbolis i ng national language chanting ‘Hey Ram’ in front of the foundation stone of an English medium s c h o o l n a me d a f t e r the Mahatma.

Recently, Mahatma Gandhi government schools have been established across the state with the aim to deliver education in English language.

The cartoon, published on page 14 of the magazine, allegedly takes a dig at the English medium schools, which the Gandhian thinkers call “inappropriate”. Vidya Jain, former head of the Gandhi study centre at Rajasthan University, said that there should be no quarrel over t he English l anguage schools as Mahatma Gandhi himself went to England for his studies. “Gandhi ji chose to go to England to study where the medium of study was English. The day he was assassinated, he was learning Bangla language. The man knew several languages and conversed in many of them. ..So there is no point quarreling on the usage of language in the name of Gandhi,” said Jain.

Nathmal Didel, director of the secondary education who is also the editor-in-chief of Shivira Patrika, said that the cartoon indicates i mpo r t a n c e of Mahatma Gandhi Englis h medium schools. “Therefore, the picture (cartoon) can be seen as an indicative of inculcating various languages and import a nce o f Mahatma Gandhi English medium schools in today’s world,” said Didel.

Education minister Govind Singh Dotasra aid he will look into the matter.