SOUND ADVICE

Hot-gospellers of Hindi and knighterrants of regional languages are bound to be ruffled by the report of the working group of the UGC on the question of media of instruction in the universities. This report is, among other things, a realistic assessment of the place of English not only in our educational system but in our administration as well. Short of saying in so many words that English is absolutely indispensable, the working group pointedly suggests that we cannot do without English. It has therefore recommended that in the universities and institutions run by the Central Government English should be continued as a medium of instruction even after the adoption of an Indian language. And very rightly it is opposed to a change in the medium of instruction for professional and postgraduate courses. And to other universities which may under local pressure have to switch over to regional languages the working group’s advice is that English should be continued as a medium for a fair number of subjects, particularly science subjects. These are very practical suggestions although it must be admitted that the implementation of all of them would certainly inhibit the growth of Hindi and the regional languages by reason of their limited usage. But considering the lack of trained teachers capable of imparting instruction in Indian languages, the almost complete absence of adequate text-books in Indian languages on specialised subjects and the prevalence of utter confusion resulting from the invention of Indian equivalents for scientific terms, it is only reasonable that English should be considered the most adequate medium of instruction in the universities. There is a popular notion in certain xenophobic quarters that it is much easier to acquire higher knowledge if one is taught in one’s mother tongue than in a foreign language. This is only partly true. The fact that educational standards in high schools which have switched over to regional languages are appallingly lower than in the past, when English was the medium, proves this. As a result of poor standards in schools, the standards in the universities have also shown a sharp decline.

January 27, 1961