On Tuesday,
we had a group meeting wherein one of the agenda discussed was on IEC
(awareness campaign material) about SMC (School Management Committee) and the RTE (Right to Education). One of the drafted posters has a group of
figures with blank dialogue box for all the character to speak or say something
about the issue.
We were yet
to decide what exact words they will be saying, but the discussion was on in
which language to write the dialogue and in what language should the overall
message be written. Most of them said
that it should be written in Hindi only as there are some problem and
grammatical concern when writing in the local language i.e. Chhattisgarhi.
The ground
situation in Chhattisgarh is that, the teaching-learning process is in
Chhattisgarhi whereas the textbook and reading and writing are done in Hindi. During
the entire discussion, I never spoke or said any words as I’m relatively new
here, and I still don’t know the ground realities.
But one
thing I want to comment is on the kind of implication it has for such different
languages in the whole teaching learning process for the various stakeholders. In
psychology, and now in common parlance, the terms negative reinforcement and
positive reinforcement are often used and in this situation, I wonder what kind
of perspective we are reinforcing.
As mentioned
earlier, the textbooks in Chhattisgarh’s school are in Hindi, and everyone,
despite speaking Chhattisgarhi had accepted Hindi as the medium of education
and has no complain at all. In fact they
had accepted the difference in medium of teaching and medium of writing, if we
make a study, an overwhelming majority would agree that Hindi is the proper
medium because that has been the practice for a long time, and considering that
it has been reinforced for a long time, it won’t come as a surprise at all.
Now
regarding the poster, if the dialogues are written in Chhattisgarhi and the
overall message of the poster were written in Hindi, it would reflect the
ground reality and an overwhelming majority will accept the languages used and
the differences in language.
Personally I
think conducting the teaching learning process in two different languages smack
of double standard. Why give preference for
a language which the locals don’t use in their everyday life? And, by reflecting the ground reality, or
making that distinction in our campaign materials, are we not reinforcing the
prevailing language discrimination, or preference for Hindi?
I understand
that the NCF has given mother-tongue as the preferred language of teaching….but
I don’t know what it says about the text book! So here are a few questions to
myself that I have to understand in the near future, but if anyone can help me
out or point me towards a direction, I would be more than happy.
- What does the NCF said about the language medium of teaching and the language medium of learning in the classroom?
- Why is Hindi so important when a majority speaks Chhattisgarhi?
- Do the people of Chhattisgarh ever asked their preferred language for education?
- Are policy makers aware of this usages of two different language in ?
- How bad or how impossible really is Chhattisgarhi language that textbook cannot be written in that language?
- What are the rationales for writing text-book in a second language?
- And, what is APF policy on this regard?
3 comments:
I'm not sure who you are teaching, the subject or the intention of the education, so it's difficult to speak to speak to the questions you raise. I'm also almost totally in the dark about Indian culture, as most of my experience has been in the United States, with some time in Europe and Latin America. In some respects Los Angeles and India is the same, in the sense there are multiple cultures represented.
In my neighborhood there is the largest Cambodian population outside of of Cambodia. In the city of Long Beach where I live the largest ethnic group is Latino, making up 40% of the city.
It is possible to be Khmer or Spanish monolingual, with newspapers, signage, shopkeepers and people providing social services in these languages.
It wouldn't be possible to attend a local university where all the classes are taught in English.
If the purpose of the education is to teach a particular subject, instruction in a local language would be fine. If there are additional goals of preparing someone to function in a broader society and engage the world in a broader context, then I would think multiple languages would be better.
Michael
Thanks for the comment Micheal, and you are right that multiple language are important for the larger context...in fact, the second language they used here, hindi, will help them get a government job, but if they want to enter the private sector, they will need english! Now, will not three language be too much of a demand from primary students???
I don't know, this is my personal reflection and the questions were for me only...i only wanted to compare my understanding from time to time so i posted whatever came to my mind...
by the way, i dont teach, i work with an ngo to strengthen public school in rural areas to ensure quality education.
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