Speaking at the graduation day function, the other day the vice chancellor of an university in South India emphasized that the medium of instruction should be one’s mother toungue and that alone can “make a man into a good citizen”! Instead, if he had said that it would be easier for a student to understand his lessons if she learns the same in her mother toungue, it would have made some sense. More than his love for his mother toungue, what loomed large was his ire against students opting for English as medium of instruction.
What he fails to understand is that it is not the language of instruction which plays an important role in making a man into a good citizen, but what he learns. Â As we all know, we have in India thousands who studied in English medium schools and colleges and have become exemplar citizens. More than anything else, what about those great leaders who were involved in freedom struggle?
A good citizen is he who rises above regionalism and sees this vast country as his motherland and its citizens as his brothers and sisters.
The purpose of some educationalists is to appease certain political leaders who would not rise above petty regionalism and all that goes with it. The younger generation should chant the magic mantra of “Unity in Diversity” and turn a deaf year to the calls of narrow minded politicians and the pseudo intellectuals.
There is a great deal of linguistic emphasis these days, without appropriate focus on content and learning! I wonder if this is a ploy to divide an already divided people!
You are right when you say ‘What he fails to understand is that it is not the language of instruction which plays an important role in making a man into a good citizen, but what he learns.’ Whatever the medium of instruction, the purpose of all education should be to make a man fit to live in the society. Those who are calling for having the mother tongue as a medium of instruction do not care whether the knowledge imparted is available in it. Make available all the information in the mother tongue first, only then you can argue for making it a medium of instruction.