The Language of Instruction and the Narrative of Privilege A recent interview between Karan Thapar and the finance minister of Tamil Nadu, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (The Wire, 29 November 2022), is worth watching to get a sense of the prevailing opinion on the medium of instruction for higher education. It illustrates how it is possible to be both completely right and profoundly wrong on the same subject. Parsing this contradiction can provide a partial explanation for several persistent social and economic problems in South Asia.
It makes a lot of sense that students can learn better in their own language. I also know a number of people who studied in Urdu medium schools but are very proficient in English. These could be exceptions. Yet when it comes to deciding which way to go, the gut feeling is to study in English. It seems to be a dilemma that a sensible idea doesn’t seem to be persuasive enough.
This essay is brilliant. I am an ardent supporter of education being imparted in the mother-tongue but I do realise that there is a hierarchy based on profficiency in the English language and naturally the elites want to preserve it. Anjum Altaf's argument that unless the same quality English is taught to all pupils a case cannot be made for the English language as a strength of our people. While the Hindi - non-Hindi case in India has its own characteristics, in Pakistan Urdu has been used as an ideological extension of the Islamic identity to sever relations between regional cultures and languages and create instead an Urdu-speaking Pakistani Muslim nation. All this, while the Pakistani Muslim elite exercises its domination through English.
This is an interesting perspective on how to decolonize English:
The problem with English
Is Earth’s most-spoken language a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’? Both views distract us from the real dilemma
https://aeon.co/essays/how-do-you-decolonise-the-english-language?
It makes a lot of sense that students can learn better in their own language. I also know a number of people who studied in Urdu medium schools but are very proficient in English. These could be exceptions. Yet when it comes to deciding which way to go, the gut feeling is to study in English. It seems to be a dilemma that a sensible idea doesn’t seem to be persuasive enough.
This essay is brilliant. I am an ardent supporter of education being imparted in the mother-tongue but I do realise that there is a hierarchy based on profficiency in the English language and naturally the elites want to preserve it. Anjum Altaf's argument that unless the same quality English is taught to all pupils a case cannot be made for the English language as a strength of our people. While the Hindi - non-Hindi case in India has its own characteristics, in Pakistan Urdu has been used as an ideological extension of the Islamic identity to sever relations between regional cultures and languages and create instead an Urdu-speaking Pakistani Muslim nation. All this, while the Pakistani Muslim elite exercises its domination through English.