Roots and wings
K S S Pillai
It is said that education should give a child both roots and wings. The mother tongue is supposed to give roots, and English, the lingua franca for national and international communication, wings. To emphasize the importance of the mother tongue, February 21 was celebrated as International Mother Language Day by the United Nations.
It is universally accepted that the mother tongue is critically important for cognitive, psychological, and personality development, education and learning. One would, therefore, expect parents to throng schools that impart education in that language to get their children admitted. However, the fact remains that most of the well-off parents hold their nose in disgust at the mention of these schools and rush to English medium schools. The more expensive the school, the higher one’s status in society.
In the past, the only schools that taught in English medium used to be those managed by convents, where most of the teachers were nuns with good knowledge of English. Now they have been pushed back by schools with fancy names like ‘public schools’, ‘international schools’, and even ‘global schools’.
While migrants from other states often have no option in the absence of schools that teach in their mother tongue, even poor and semi-literate parents dream of getting their wards admitted to these schools and see them suited and booted, wearing a tie with the monogram of the school, even in the sweltering heat. Every year I find a large number of parents sleeping outside the gates of such schools overnight so that they could get exorbitantly priced application forms for admission to the kindergarten class as soon as the school is opened.
If notices prominently displayed are to be believed, many such schools have made it compulsory for their students to speak only in English while in the school compound. One would, therefore, expect these students to be proficient in English after a while, but that is not the case always.
I had spent hours coaching my grandson Abhi in the correct use of English till he passed out of his school. I was happy that he had a reasonably good command of the language when the left the school and joined a reputed English medium college for his degree course.
This being the age of online classes, thanks to a virus, I attended some of his classes recently. The teachers were experienced and well-qualified in their subjects. Naturally, I expected them to speak English without many mistakes, but was in for a shock.
Most of them did deliver their lectures in English at a high speed and ended every sentence with an ‘okay?’ without an inkling of doubt about the correctness of the language they used. I had painstakingly taught English grammar to Abhi and cautioned him about the usual pitfalls, and was satisfied with his progress. I am no more certain about his ability to use the language correctly after getting hammered with those lectures for more than four years. I won’t be surprised to find him imitate his teachers, secretly doubting my command on the language.
Abhi told me one day, to my great relief, that the teachers have assured the students that mistakes in grammar and spelling would be ignored while answer papers were assessed. As if they could detect them, I thought. I am happy that they are in tune with the language used in text messages, Twitter and other social media, where no one is worried about the correctness of the language.
I am often asked by those who want to impress me to suggest shortcuts to proficiency in English. What they seem to want is a small book, telling them how to use correct English. Most of them never read English newspapers or books, leave alone watch English news channels. They want to learn swimming without touching water. When I tell them there is no shortcut, they simply nod their heads and leave.
I wonder how many children attain strong roots and wings while getting their school and college education.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to the Kashmir Vision, his articles and short stories have appeared in various national and international publications)
