Unit
VIII Language Policy in Education
Importance
of Language
Language
symbolizes human development. Language
is the power of the human race through which he is able to express himself and
understand the expressions of others.
India is a big country in which people of different castes, religions,
standards of living, food habits, languages and customs are living. Apart from physical diversities between one
region and the other, there are several other kinds of diversities in India.
Language
policy during the Pre-independent Period
1.
Vedic and Buddhist Period
During the Vedic Period and Epic
Period, the major language of Instruction in the Educational Process was
Sanskrit, the language of the upper cast people. During the Buddhist Period, they started
using Pali, the language of the common folk at their Viharas for educational
transaction.
2.
Under Muslim Rule
With the establishment of Muslim
rule in the land a foreign language came into existence for the first time in
India. Urdu the original language of
Muslim rulers was used for government work. But it could not become the medium
for inter-provincial communication in spite of government protection. Sanskrit, other native and Hindi continued to
occupy that place.
3.
Under British Rule
(i)
Christian Missionaries:
The Christian Missionaries established educational institutions as a powerful
means to spread Christian religion. In all such institutions the medium of
instruction was English. Lord Macaulay
and Lord William Bentinck stood for English as the medium of instruction. The British Government also declared that
preference would be given to English knowing people for government posts. Thus English education got more encouragement
from the time of the British Rule.
(ii)
Wood’s Dispatch (1854):
An amendment was made in the Wood’s Dispatch of 1854, that English would be the
medium of instruction only for brilliant students and all other students would
be educated through Indian languages.
(iii)
Education Commission (1882): The first Education Commission decided that
the medium for Secondary Schools would be English but primary education would
be given through Indian languages.
(iv)
Calcutta University Commission (1917):
It
recommended the adoption of Indian languages as medium of instruction up to
higher secondary stage.
(v)
1935 to 1947:
By 1935, regional languages had become medium of instruction in most of the
educational institutions. But some
institutions, run by Christian Missionaries, kept English as the medium of
instruction. The leaders engaged in
public movement demanded to make Indian languages as medium of instruction in
all types of educational institutions and to adopt the Basic system of
education for the primary level. After
the Movement of 1942, the British rulers accepted Indian languages as the first
compulsory language and English as second compulsory language for secondary
education but continued English as medium of instruction for higher education.
Language
policy during Post Independent Period
(i)
Dr.Radhakrishnan
Commission (1948):
The first commission known as Dr.Radhakrishnan Commission was appointed
in 1948 after Independence. It
recommended the study of the national language in the Devanagri Script and that
of English and regional language both at secondary and University stages.
(ii)
Secondary
Education Commission (1953): It recommended two
language formula instead of three-language formula recommended by Radhakrishnan
Commission. It also recommended that at
the State level facilities should be provided for the study of every language
spoken in a State.
(iii)
The
Central Advisory Board of Education (1956): It recommended
the adoption of three-language formula.
(iv)
Kothari
Commission: Appointed in 1964-66, the Kothari Commission
proposed some suggestions regarding the language problem in its report, after
visiting a number of places and after interviewing students, teachers and
parents etc., of all regions and levels.
According to it, the languages taught at different stages should have
the following form:
Classes I to IV: The
study of one language should be compulsory.
It will naturally be the mother tongue.
Classes V to VII: The study of the two languages should be compulsory
at this stage. First language should be
mother tongue and the second language may either be the official language of
the Nation i.e., Hindi or the associate official language of the Union i.e.,
English so long as it exists.
Classes VIII to X: The
study of three languages should be compulsory at this stage and one of these
three languages should be the official language of the Nation or the associate
official language which was not taken up in class V to VII.
Classes XI to XII:
Two languages should be made compulsory at this stage. The student should be given option to select
any two of three languages studied earlier or any two languages from the groups
given ahead:
(i)
Modern Indian Languages.
(ii)
Modern Foreign Languages.
(iii)
Classical Languages – Foreign and Indian.
(v)
Ishwar Bhai Patel Committee (1977) : The Committee recommended that in determining the pattern of
languages to be taught, the recommendations of the Kothari Commission should be
given due consideration.
(vi)
The National Policy on Education (1979): According to this,
the three-language formula will be implemented at the secondary stage. It includes the study of a modern Indian
language preferably a South Indian language, in addition to Hindi and English
in Hindi-speaking states.
Language
policy as specified in Indian Constitution
Articles
343–351 of Part XVII and the 8th Schedule of the
Constitution of India deal with issues of the languages of the country
Article
343
- 1:“The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.”
Article
343
– 2: “English can be used for all official purposes as a language of vital
opportunities and international contact.”
Article
345
: “Official communication between States
and Union should be in the Official language of the Union i.e. Hindi.”
Article
348:
“English can be used for all legal purposes eg. For bills, procedures of court
etc.”
Article
350
A : State should provide adequate facilities for instruction in the
mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to
linguistic minority groups
Article
351:
State should take necessary steps to promote and spread Hindi as a national
link language.
Views
of Great Thinkers on Medium of instruction
Rabindranath
Tagore
Education according to Tagore is development of the
individual. It is the enrichment of personality and education should be
Indian and not borrowed from the West.
Curriculum
Tagore was a naturalist and also an idealist and he wants
things of beauty and nice
virtues to be taught in the curriculum. He lays stress on those subjects that make a child full
and rich in knowledge. He also wants them to appreciate truth, beauty and goodness.
virtues to be taught in the curriculum. He lays stress on those subjects that make a child full
and rich in knowledge. He also wants them to appreciate truth, beauty and goodness.
Methods of
Teaching
He wants teaching-learning to be a joyous adventure, full
of thrills, wonders, and
surprises. School is not to be a factory and learning has to be enjoyable.
He believes that children learn their lessons with the
aid of their whole body and mind, with all the senses fully active and eager.
Tagore does not want teachers to be harsh to children. They should be
treated with all sympathy and consideration.
·
He
is in favor of easy education that is education through music, art, literature
and nature
·
Books
must provide students with vivid pictures of their home and society.
·
Education
must not lead students to enchanting falsehood.
The
Role of a Teacher
· The teacher’s role is to provide an
environment, where students have the confidence to express their own learning
ability.
· There is no need for any form of
corporal punishment to discipline students because fear of making mistakes
prevents an individual from being free to venture a new thought, to innovate,
to ask questions and to be creative.
· Discipline should be based on
motivations like joy and pursuit of creative tasks.
· A teacher must prepare students for
the good fortune and character as well.
Medium
of instruction
· Tagore
emphasized on mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Language is the true
vehicle of expression.
· Tagore
wanted to reform Indian education by combining the progressive views of the
west and the spirituality of the east.
· As he was an
artist turned educationist, he gave a new dimension to education-emotional fulfillment
through self expression, creative work and communion with nature.
Mahatma Gandhi
Basic Educational
Concepts
Education
for Gandhi is holistic in nature. It leads to the development of all aspects of
human personality, an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man, body,
mind and spirit. The highest development
of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education.
Gandhi
emphasized the need for educating the child through manual work as the prime
means of intellectual training.
He
wanted education to be free from the
narrow limitations of the formal classroom. He envisages compulsory education for all boys and
girls. Gandhi was of the view that
education should help children to be good citizens. Education for him should cater to the needs of the whole personality:
head, heart and hand.
At
the primary education level according to Gandhi, children should be given
elementary knowledge of history, geography, mental arithmetic and the art of
spinning. Through these he proposes to develop their intelligence. He felt that
the commencement of training by teaching the alphabet and reading and writing
hampers their intellectual growth. The alphabet has to be taught only after
they are acquainted with the prevailing conditions and history of the society
in which they live.
Gandhi on Medium of
Instruction
Gandhi
has totally opposed English education. His distaste towards English education
is evident in his writings. Gandhi
attaches greatest importance to learning in the language into which a child is
born. He notes that ‘English is today admittedly the world language. I would
therefore accord it a place as a second, optional language, not in the school,
but in the university course. We and our children must build on our own
heritage’.
Gandhi
noted that by borrowing from others we impoverish our own language. His stress
was on building knowledge in the languages spoken by people. English medium education causes an undue
stress on children. It will make them
crammers and imitators. Gandhiji believed that foreign medium will make our
children foreigners in our own land.
English medium instruction will prevent the growth of our vernaculars.
Swami Vivekananda
Vivekananda
believed in the unity of man and God. He
tried to unite Indian spirituality and western materialism. Education is the discovery of the inner-self
i.e self revelation. Education is development from within. Vivekananda doesn’t
believe in the system of education where the learners’ mind gets jam packed
with information without having any space for independent thinking.
Methods
of Teaching
The
task of the teacher is only to help the child to manifest knowledge by removing
the obstacles in its way. The learner is
just like a plant, and we cannot do anything more than supplying it water, air,
manure while it grows from its own nature.
The
method of teaching must be problem-solving under the bias-free guidance of the
teacher. The teacher’s role is just a
facilitator, similar to the modern educationist Heuristic method. The teacher has to come down to the level of
the learner and give him a push upwards.
Role of the Teacher
Teachers
must help children’s mind to grow by unfolding and unveiling the natural power
inherent in them. Children teach themselves and the duty of the teacher is to
offer them opportunity and remove obstacles. Teachers must provide conducive
environment and the rest will happen by itself.
Medium of Instruction
Vivekananda
strongly advocates “mother tongue” as the medium of instruction so that it will
reach everyone. However, he also believes that it is necessary to learn English
and Sanskrit. While English is important for mastering Science, Sanskrit leads
one into the depths of our vast store of classics.
