Resetting educational priorities!
Is Indian higher education facing
a serious case of misplaced priorities? We seem to be entering an era of higher
education where the medium seems more important that the content itself. The
obsession to give importance to English above everything else is dangerously
veering the values of Indian institutions away from content towards the medium.
We are moving in a direction where anyone who knows how to use English well can
pass off as knowledgeable. The ability to put things in good English seems to
be more important than the content. Such tendencies are acceptable in certain
fields of study or activity like advertising or commentating; but, when the
same tendencies start appearing in areas such as research where content should
be of paramount consideration, then it is time to worry about what our
priorities are – is it to be really top-quality, or to appear top-quality by
using fancy English.
This tendency to place English
usage above subject proficiency comes from a conception that English rules the
world. This is not a misconception, but needs to be looked at from a different
perspective. A language cannot be the one that dominates; it is the people who
use it. It is not the language that decides that stature of the people, it is
the people who use the language that decide its importance.
For instance; using the word
‘color’ in an examination about 15 years back would have got an Indian student
a ‘red mark’ on his answer script for a spelling error. Today, the words
‘color’, ‘neighbor’, ‘harbor’ and all such spellings are more than accepted; in
fact, there are places that prefer ‘color’ to ‘colour’. Has English changed in
the last 15 years so much that these spellings are accepted? Has Oxford accepted
these spellings? No; but, we have accepted them. Is it because of the power of
English or because the Americans have become far too important to the urban
Indian for us to ignore they way they use English? It is because America means more to us than England. That
should give you a fair idea of how important English – it is only as important
as the people who use it!
American English came to be
accepted around the world not because they were essentially right, but because
the Americans and their dollars were too important to be ignored. So, we were
willing to ditch a few ‘u’s and ‘l’s in our spellings to sound more American.
That’s all that English counts for.
Those who think that English is the only way
to development; you don’t have to look too far. China is one country that has given
the quality and efficiency of its industries more importance than the quality
of English. And, Japan
– they give priority to the perfection of engineering than the English they
speak. Both these countries still send out research publications in their own
languages. Peers world over are willing to take the pain or pay to get these
publications translated into English because they are sure that the information
is worth the effort. Can you imagine a research publication in Tamil or Hindi
being given the same status? No, and it is not because (as some politicians
might tell) the world is on a conspiracy to end all traditional Indian
languages. It is because they are not sure whether the information will be of
any use to them – in other words, the quality is suspect!
If quality is assured, then
language is only a minor barrier. Else, the Thirukkural would never have got
translated. Indian education today is a place where one can get away with poor
technical know-how if one knows good English (of course, competitive exams are
thankfully exceptions). But, within a college or a research institution,
sometimes, English seems to be the only skill one needs to survive. Priorities
need to be reset in a way that expertise in the subject is the single most
important factor that determines how far one can go. Or else, we might become a
country that knows nothing but English and we should fear the time when English
is no longer the dominant language in the world.
