The RSS must leave well alone
English is India’s advantage and the new education policy must promote it
Getting the education system to conform to its ideology has been a goal of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for much of its existence. So it comes as no surprise that with the ministry of human resource development all set to formulate the new education policy, the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas is trying to influence its content. It wants the medium of instruction in schools to be in the mother tongue and not English — it says English should not be mandatory. All research work, according to it, should be linked to national requirements and those which are not should not get UGC scholarships. And of course, there is the usual demand that references that insult Indian culture, traditions, thoughts, eminent persons, etc, should be removed from textbooks. The ministry should firmly resist this.
Knowledge of English is India’s strength especially vis-à-vis countries like China. The mother tongue should be taught in schools but this does not have to be at the cost of English. The demand for English can be seen from the number of Englishmedium schools that has been set up. But not just the RSS, even successive governments have not been responsive enough to the people’s aspirations when it comes to English education. India’s outsourcing industry, its thriving IT sector have all been made possible because of the English advantage. This should not be frittered away because an RSS affiliate feels differently. The call to link research to national requirements is another ill-thoughtout demand. Research if anything should be linked to industry. The definition of national requirement is vague and any proposal to withhold scholarships unless this criterion is met would be counterproductive. As for removing insults to culture and tradition from textbooks, the RSS has no business dictating what this constitutes. The reference to “wrong” explanations again suggests that the RSS yardstick is the one which the ministry should follow. The only parameter a textbook should follow should be to stick to the facts and not try and promote misplaced nationalism. If research was aimed only at national requirements, we would not have had the sort of cutting edge discoveries which have benefited all of mankind.
The education policy must be aimed at getting children the best education that can enable them to compete in a globalising world. Many of our netas understand this – their children study in English medium schools and attend college abroad. The education policy is too important for it to be tinkered with by those with little knowledge of the subject.