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India
English Next India David Graddol British Council
English Next India
David Graddol
© British Council 2010
ISBN: 978-086355-627-2
Opinions expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the British Council.
Martin Davidson
Foreword by Professor Abhai Maurya
Vice-Chancellor of EFL University, Hyderabad
It has always been a pleasure reading David Graddol’s works.
As the Vice-Chancellor of a university that is well known for
the teaching of English and training of teachers of English,
it is imperative on my part to keep abreast of the language
trends in the country, and in this connection, David Graddol’s
works contain a wealth of well-documented facts and figures, a
testimony to the research that goes into each of them. I had the
pleasure of meeting David on his visit to our university and was
impressed by his dedication, enthusiasm and earnestness to
unravel the mystery of the status of English in modern India.
David Graddol doesn’t deny the fact that India does have some
near-native speakers of English but he is quick to add that these
are restricted to certain pockets of the country, the preserve of
the elite. The author has brought into focus what Pandit Nehru
had said way back in 1963,
The main ideas and key concepts, including the notion of English
– Dalit Goddess, peddled by some Dalit activists, are presented
in an easy-to-read format, signposted in compact sections. The
statistics and the topically relevant photographs add credibility
to the ideas and issues highlighted in the book. Language
trainers in the corporate world with the blinkered idea that
correctly spoken English is the only ‘soft skill’ to be mastered
by their employees are in for a rude shock in this book. David
Graddol provides a list of ‘soft skills’ other than English language
proficiency that employers may insist on in future for the smooth
functioning of their organisation. This book provides useful
recommendations not only for trainers and teachers but also
for government agencies on what steps they need to take to
counter the problems faced by them.
Abhai Maurya
Contents
forewords 3
introduction 9
main conclusions 14
part one: india in transition 16
Introduction: India – a land of tradition and change 18
Section 1: Indian society 21
Young India 22
A divided society 24
The urbanisation puzzle 26
Geography 28
Social trends and issues 30
Section 2: Economy 31
An economy in transition 32
The employment puzzle 34
The domestic economy 36
Economy trends and issues 38
Section 3: Communications 39
The IT-BPO revolution 40
Media 42
Road, rail and air 44
IT and social change 46
Communications trends and issues 48
Section 4: Languages 49
The languages of India 50
The rise of Hindi 52
Minority languages 54
Multilingualism 56
The European experience 58
Languages trends and issues 60
Section 5: English in India 61
The story of English in India 62
English in India is growing 64
How many speak English? 66
English trends and issues 68
Part one references 69
part two: learning english in india 70
Introduction: English in Indian education 72
Section 1: Schools 77
Towards universal education 78
Improving quality 80
The great language divide 82
The privatising of Indian education 84
Ever more English 86
The first-generation learner 88
The global picture 90
The danger of English 92
Teacher training 94
Schools trends and issues 96
Section 2: Beyond school 97
Expanding and improving quality 98
English in the universities 100
English in vocational education 102
Employability skills 104
Beyond school trends and issues 106
Part two references 107
part three: policy implications 108
Only a few years ago, north America and Europe discovered that India
could provide low-cost back office and call centre facilities. It looked as if
India was finally able to ‘monetise’ its British colonial legacy. The English
language appears to be the key ingredient in a new, IT-enabled, economy
which is everywhere transforming Indian society. But as the Indian
economy grows, exhausting its English-speaking ‘talent pool’, some people
are beginning to think that perhaps not enough people in India speak
English after all.
India is home to what is probably the most complex society in the world
– complex not just because of its size, but because complexity seems to
be in its DNA, reproduced in a fractal pattern from national to local village
level. Indian society embraces some of the most modern, hi-tech fuelled,
global-travelling life-styles alongside the most abject poverty. In the cities
of India, it is possible to experience many centuries of urban development
on the same day.
(Left) A girl in a slum school in Hyderabad receives English lessons from a volunteer teacher
supported by Pratham – an NGO first established in 1994 to provide education to the children in
the slums of Mumbai city and whose work now reaches millions of children in both urban and rural
areas across India. But will English provide a liberation for such children, or prove to be yet another
means of marginalising them, as they watch others get far richer than before?
This book does not attempt to provide simple answers to what are
complex problems. It suggests a diversity of locally implemented
solutions is needed. But English Next India attempts to identify some of
the key questions, and thus help stimulate an informed public debate
about the future of English in India.
The first part of this book sets out the wider context, focusing on how
globalisation is changing the Indian economy and society in ways
which have implications for language policy. This part is not intended
to be a comprehensive account of India today: it sets out some of the
background factors which affect future educational needs and the
changing role of English.
The focus in the second part of the book is on learning English in India,
especially within the education system, both public and private.
The last part identifies some key issues and questions raised by previous
sections and some of the responses from participants in the English for
Progress: Third Policy Dialogue, a conference held in Delhi in November
2009, organised by ‘Project English’ of the British Council in India.
(Left) Chennai is a bilingual city, but in India that often means that some things are said in English and others
in the local language. Are only those who understand English expected to obey the parking regulations?
India
in transition
english next india • part one • india in transition 17
PART ONE INTRODUCTION
A DowNSIDE To ENGLISH?
And what might the downside be? More The main transitions in India
English implies not just an economic India is undergoing several kinds of transition.
The following seem to be the most important
rebalancing, but also a cultural one. Indian
with regard to language:
lifestyles are already changing, as the middle
class grows in size and people change from The demographic transition
simply trying to survive to become con- » The Indian population will continue to grow,
sumers. This means that English will prob- possibly reaching over 2 billion before it
ably play an increased role in private, as well stabilises early in the next century
as public, life. » The age structure will become more bal-
What does the increasing importance of anced, with a greater proportion of the
English mean for the still-unfinished project population of productive working age
to make Hindi a national language? What
The economic transition
does it mean for the status of regional
languages? And what does it mean for the » Fewer people will work in agriculture, more in
the organised sector, especially services
smaller, lesser used, unscheduled languages
of India? Is the development road-map one » The domestic economy will grow, becoming
more important than the export sector
which leads inevitably to reduced linguistic
diversity, or can India draw up a new map The social transition
of its own, in which multilingualism becomes » The middle class, with disposable income, will
the goal, rather than English on its own? grow in size – even in rural areas
Demographic change may be an intrinsic » More people will live in cities
feature of development and has a known
ultimate destiny. But the destinations of The educational transition
other kinds of transition are determined by » Enrolment in education, up to the age of 14,
the development road-map itself – in other will approach 100%
words, by policy decisions or the lack of » The quality of learning will improve
them. One such transition is to an English- » A larger proportion of the population will
speaking, multilingual society. Too often, enter higher education
individual elements of policy are stressed
as if they were ends in themselves – such The English transition
as the need to learn English – without » Spoken English, rather than just reading and
explaining how they fit into the bigger social writing, becomes a key skill
and economic picture. English Next India is » A majority of the population will become bilin-
gual, with English as their second language
intended to help stimulate a debate which
will help us understand that bigger picture.
Young India 22
A divided society 24
The urbanisation puzzle 26
Geography 28
Indian society trends and issues 30
young India
India has more young people than any
Rest of
other country – even China. This has World
Africa
made attaining full enrolment in schools Latin 10%
22%
a challenge, and also means many more America
9%
school-leavers and graduates will be
looking for employment.
India
transition’.
India’s population is following this path: 100
25
80
20
70 Developed
Dependency ratio
China
15
60
India
10 50
40
5
30
0
0
2001 2011 2021 2031 2041 2051 2061 2071 2081 2091 2101
1.4 India’s youth will become a less dominant factor 1.5 Changing dependency ratios. A dependency ratio
in the population make-up. At the same time, the shows the number of dependents (children or elderly)
number of older people will grow. (PFI & PRB 2007) as a percentage of people of working age.
A divided society
India may have a huge population, but
its society is ranked by interlocking
Muslims
divides of religion, caste, gender, age, 13%
Hindus
wealth and geography. 81%
Christians
2.3%
Sikhs
1.9%
Others
Jains 0.7%
how Indian society is fragmented into dif- 0.4%
ferent communities in a complex mosaic.
The almost fractal structure of difference
1.7 The religious composition of India, according
and inequality – even among the poor –
to the Census of India 2001. Many Muslim families
means that any social or educational inno- migrated to Pakistan after the Partition, but Muslims
vation has a differential impact on different still represent a significant presence. The ‘others’
communities and individuals. The problem include the Parsis, and several Jewish communities.
Tribes
8%
Other Backward
Castes
41%
Female, rural Muslim
1.6 Less than a third of Indians belong to groups 1.8 Which segment of India’s divided society a
which are regarded as not deserving of special child belongs to has a significant impact on their
treatment in social and economic policy. (Household educational chances, as these two extremes in
Survey 2004–05) literacy development show.
90%
80%
GrowTH oF THE MIDDLE CLASS
70%
As the economy grows, the middle class is
60% 1 Globals
expected to swell and poverty to decrease. 2 Strivers
50%
A report by McKinsey in 2007 projected that 3 Seekers
40%
another 300 million people are expected to 4 Aspirers
move from the category of ‘rural poor’ to 30% 5 Deprived
‘lower rural middle class’ by 2017, making 20%
Europe
Delhi 15.5 408
60 Kolkata 13.8 287
Latin America Chennai 6.9 337
40 Bangalore 6.6 300
India Hyderabad 5.7 273
20 Pune 5.1 210
China Ahmedabad 4.8 317
0 Boomtowns
00
20
30
0
80
90
70
10
Surat 4 431
5
20
20
20
20
19
19
19
19
19
Geography
India’s geography ranges from
Himalayan valleys to the Great Indian T he states of India vary on almost every
dimension considered so far: demo-
graphic, religious, degree of urbanisation,
Desert of rajasthan and the beaches
and backwaters of Kerala. Each of the and perhaps most of all, sheer size. Uttar
Indian states and Union Territories has Pradesh has a population of about 197 mil-
its own profile in terms of size and mix lion (2010), whereas one of the smallest is
of social communities. the Himalayan state of Sikkim, with a popula-
tion of 600,000. Population is increasing in
all states, but the rate of growth is slowing
Uttar P in most. By 2026 it is expected to have
Maharashtra
Bihar started to decline in only one: Goa.
West Bengal
Andhra P
Tamil Nadu Two KEy GEoGrAPHICAL DIVIDES
Madhya P The division between north and south in
Rajasthan
Karnataka India is a long-standing cultural and eco-
Gujarat
nomic one. The populations of the southern
Orissa
Kerala states (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,
Jharkhand
Assam
Tamil Nadu) are largely Dravidian language
Punjab speakers. Their history, development
Haryana
Chhatisgarh record, population profiles, and economies
Delhi are very different from those of the large
J&K
Uttaranchal northern states, such as Bihar, Rajasthan
Himachal P and Uttar Pradesh. Kerala, for example,
Tripura
Manipur has the highest literacy rate in India, and
Meghalaya remittances from its many English-speaking
Nagaland
Goa overseas workers provide an important
Arunachal P
Pondicherry
development resource. School attendance
Chandigarh in states like Bihar, meanwhile, remains
Mizoram
Sikkim stubbornly low.
A&N Islands The eight north-eastern states form
D&NH
Daman & Diu another distinct geographical zone.
Lakshadweep Connected to the rest of India by a 20km-
0 50 100 150 wide land corridor and all but surrounded
200
Population (millions) by Nepal, Bhutan, China, Burma and
1.14 The states of India vary greatly in population Bangladesh, these states are very multilin-
size. gual, but politically troubled. Several of the
» Despite its slightly smaller total population, India has 50% more children
than China – making the Indian education system the largest in the world.
» The changing age structure of the population will be one of the defining
features of India’s future development. Bihar at present has a smaller
population than Maharashtra, but in 25 years’ time, Bihar will have a much
larger workforce.
» Urbanisation rates in most Indian states remain very low – much lower
than in other developing economies. There appear to be structural and
political reasons for this, but low urbanisation is likely to have an impact
on the growth of English.
» Research shows that the middle class is growing in size and becoming
richer. Spending on private English-medium education is growing.
An economy in transition 32
The employment puzzle 34
The domestic economy 36
Economy trends and issues 38
An economy in transition
1.16 Farmers sprinkle
fertilisers on their rice
crop on the outskirts
of Amritsar, June
2009. India’s monsoon
rainfall, the main source
of irrigation for the
country’s 235 million
farmers, was below
normal in 2009, but
flooding in Karnataka
and Andhra Pradesh in
October caused loss of
life and further difficulty
for poor communities.
(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
300
of poverty, and providing more tax revenues
250
which can support national development.
200
07
50
59
65
71
77
83
89
95
20
20
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
70
Agriculture
Industry 50,000
Services
60
45,000
25,000
20,000
30
15,000
10,000
20
5,000
0
a
ina
A
ia
an
zil
y
ce
ly
UK
10
ssi
an
US
Ita
I nd
Bra
n
Jap
Ch
Ru
rm
Fra
Ge
0 1.19 How the top ten economies might look in 2050.
51
61
71
81
91
01
07
19
19
19
19
20
20
1.18 Changing structure of GDP: Services Many public sector jobs require applicants
contributed over 55% of GDP in 2007–08 as the role to pass English language exams – for
of agriculture is falling. (Economic Survey 2009)
over a century, English has been seen as
Agricultural workers have little need to a passport to a pensionable government
communicate with people outside their job. Now, the private sector also requires
communities. Services – even shop or English – but often of a different kind.
hotel workers – need good communication
skills both towards customers and within
their own management. India’s continued
economic growth will depend on the avail-
ability of people who can communicate
across language and cultural boundaries,
both internationally and nationally.
Other trends are equally important. A
worsening balance of payments, followed
by the first Gulf War (which had a huge
impact on the Indian economy) helped the
then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh
push through radical, liberalising reforms
1.20 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shares a word
in 1991. Since then the private sector has with US President Barack Obama, at the G8 summit in
made an increasing contribution to GDP. Italy, July 2009. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Public 17.87m
Private 8.45m
Urban
female
6%
Unorganised
other 107.5m Urban male
21%
Rural male
47%
Unorganised
textiles 34m Unorganised
agriculture
251.7m Rural female
26%
1.24 Brigade Road, Bangalore, where many middle-class consumers go to shop. The growth in the retail sector
provides new job opportunities for school-leavers who possess English language skills.
We have observed that English communication India still has a small tourism industry
skills for the said age group need to be developed. considering its size, but domestic tourists
The target is mainly students from municipal outnumber international tourists by a factor
schools and rural areas whose English is poor. of ten. Workers in the hospitality trade will
thus need better communication skills in
ToUrISM AND HoSPITALITy Indian languages as well as English.
The Government of India’s 11th Five-Year Tourism companies and elite hotels need
Plan identifies tourism as an important sector: English-speaking drivers, who can earn 2–5
Tourism sector in the country is witnessing a boom times as much as a driver elsewhere – in
that may bring an exponential demand for the addition to receiving the benefits of a job in
workforce at managerial, supervisory, skilled and the organised sector, such as health insur-
semi-skill levels. (Vol III, p. 250) ance and a pension.
50
40
Economy
percentage GDP
30
Trends and issues
20
10
»
51
61
71
81
91
01
07
The Indian economy has been growing strongly since the 1980s but it is
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
the future pattern of growth that will determine the demand for languages
in India, including English.
» There are several economic transitions now under way in India, of which
the most important from a linguistic point of view are probably the shift
to the services sector in both employment and contribution to GDP, the
growing importance of regional trade, and the growth of the domestic
economy.
Media
In many countries, the complaint is that
imported English language media are English
9%
too dominant and overwhelm locally
produced programming. In India, it is
not English but Hindi which may be now
most dominant – eroding programming
in regional languages.
NEwSPAPErS Vernacular
As the literacy rate in India has improved, 91%
so has the circulation of regional language
newspapers. Hindi papers are, as might
be expected, now the most widely read,
with 41% of the total readership of dai-
lies – about the same proportion of Hindi 1.29 Readership of daily newspapers. The last
National Readership Survey (2006) showed vernacular
speakers in the population. English dailies,
readerships growing, and English ones stagnating.
however, are the second most read – The
Times of India has the greatest circulation.
A survey of affluent families by Nielsen in Top ten English daily newspapers 2009
2009 found that English is their preferred 1 The Times of India 13.3
language for newspapers, but television is 2 Hindustan Times 6.3
consumed more in regional languages.
3 The Hindu 5.3
4 The Telegraph 3.0
FILM
India is said to make more films than any 5 Deccan Chronicle 2.8
other country; some 1,000 each year. 6 The Economic Times 2.0
About 70% of these are in Hindi, but as they 7 Mid-Day 1.6
are intended to reach a national audience, 8 Indian Express 1.6
(and around half of the big Bollywood stars
9 Mumbai Mirror 1.6
are Muslim) the language might be better
described as Hindustani, with different char- 10 DNA 1.5
acters speaking in ways which reflect the
1.30 About 15% of newspaper titles in India are in
diversity of the film’s audience. The historian
English, 40% Hindi. The above table shows millions
Ramachandra Guha commented on the role of readers for the top ten English newspaper titles.
of film in helping create a national identity: (Indian Readership Survey May 2009)
When imposed by fiat by the central government, The dominance of Hindi extends to chil-
Hindi was resisted by the people of the south dren’s television. A Disney official, quoted
and the east. When conveyed seductively by the in a Kolkata newspaper report, says ‘English
medium of cinema and television, Hindi has been may be the language of our business, but
accepted by them. In Bangalore and Hyderabad, a local language is preferred for entertain-
Hindi has become the preferred medium of com- ment’ (Telegraph, 29 July 2009). But some
munication between those who speak mutually parents in Kolkata are concerned that it
incomprehensible tongues. (Guha, 2007) does not get local enough – there is a lack
of Bengali-language programming, and
TELEVISIoN they say their children are now learning
Indian television used to be dominated by Hindi, rather than English, from television.
Doordarshan, the state broadcaster which The dominance of Hindi may decline
supplied the nation with staid national and slightly as the media market grows. The
regional programmes. When private com- global internet was first dominated by
panies were licensed in 1992, commercial English, but developed into a multilingual
channels proliferated – there are now over space as it matured. Similarly, television
300 satellite channels received in India, and may diversify linguistically, as the consumer
around half of households have a television. market in India grows and companies
Commercial channels in India need to attempt to reach into minority market
reach the widest audience at the lowest segments.
cost and this has resulted in a focus on a
Top ten programmes in Kolkata
few languages. However, the main benefi-
May–june 2009
ciary language is not English. Hindi reaches a
Genre % share
much larger audience for general entertain-
1 Bangla regional 31.4
ment channels and offers media companies
2 Children’s 24.5
the greatest returns: Hindi entertainment is
3 Hindi GEC 19.9
thought to account for 55% of advertising
4 Hindi movies 7.9
revenue and so can justify high levels of
investment in production values. Even 5 Sports 2.2
English films are often dubbed into Hindi 6 Music 1.6
before broadcast. Rupert Murdoch, owner of 7 Hindi news 1.2
Star TV, said as early as 1994: 8 Infotainment 0.8
9 English movies 0.4
With the coming of electronic mass media, Hindi is
10 English business news 0.3
finally spreading because everyone wants to watch
1.31 Programming for the target group 4–14 years old,
the best television programming. (Charter 1995)
17.5.09 to 11.6.09. (TAM Peoplemeter System)
25
As highways reshape the movement of
20
people, they also remodel the linguistic
15
10
landscape. They increase urbanisation, and
5 bring large areas surrounding cities into a
0 ‘peri-urban’ zone, in which many providers
of services to the city reside.
Cities become more multilingual, and as
1.32 The number of passengers each year on
linguistic diversity in the cities increases,
domestic flights increased quickly as private airlines so the role of English, as a lingua franca,
began operations in the mid 2000s. increases too.
MASS TrANSIT
For centuries, movement in cities has been
even more difficult than in rural areas, but
the recent construction of mass transit
systems is helping to change patterns of
work, shopping and leisure.
Kolkata was the first city to open an
underground rail system, though it took far
longer to complete than intended. Delhi
followed with its metro project, which is
regarded by most citizens as a model of 1.34 Several hundred thousand villages in India, like
efficiency and uncorrupt management. this one in West Bengal, have no proper road access. A
rural roads programme is helping local farmers move
Rapid transit projects are now under way
produce to markets, allow families to stay in contact,
in other cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, and get girls to school. More parents are also able to
Bangalore and Hyderabad. send their children to an English-medium school..
300
250
Communications
200
150
100
Trends and issues
50
Urdu 4%
oFFICIAL LANGUAGES Tamil 5% 4%
ti
Gujara
6% 3%
The scheduled languages have a mainly
a
n ad
led
rhetorical status in the constitution: what is Marathi 3%
Kan
du
7% m
he
probably more important is whether they ala
3%
Sc
lay riy
a
n-
a
have been adopted by any of the states as an M O
No
3%
Telegu jabi
official language. States can decide which of 7% Pun se 1%
ss a m e
A aithili 1%
the languages spoken within their borders – M
Other 2%
scheduled or otherwise – should be granted
Bengali
official status for the purposes of regional 8%
government. In practice, because linguistic
criteria were used when state boundaries
Hindi
were drawn after independence, most states 41%
have a majority of speakers from a single
language community, making the choice of Other
official language relatively easy. Some states, Santali 0.63% Sindhi 0.25% Manipuri 0.15%
including several in the north east where there Kashmiri 0.54% Konkani 0.24% Bodo 0.13%
Nepali 0.28% Dogri 0.22% Sanskrit 0.001%
is no simple linguistic majority, have nominated
English as their official state language. The offi- 1.38 The languages of India according to the
proportion of the population who speak them as a
cial languages of Pondicherry include French.
first language (Census 2001)
percentage of population
present standardised form is a fairly
recent creation. 39
37
It was felt in early postcolonial times that
1971 1981 1991 2001
any newly independent country needed
a single, standardised language – an idea 1.40 The percentage of the population reporting
Hindi as their first language has been increasing.
reinforced in India by the model provided
by the Soviet Union, which had imposed
Russian across the Union. But other British sitional period of 15 years. However, after
colonies had done something similar at violent resistance in parts of south India
independence, albeit on a smaller scale to what was seen as the imposition of a
– for example, Malaysia created modern northern language, English was accorded a
Bahasa Malaysia from Malay. somewhat uneasy reprieve as an ‘associate’
Hindi arose from a range of Hindustani official language. Hence India has never
vernaculars spoken in northern India, some had a single ‘national language’.
permeated with Persian (and thus Arabic) A 'Department of Official Language'
vocabulary and written in both the Persian exists in the Ministry of Home Affairs to
and Devanagari scripts. What emerged in encourage the 'propagation and develop-
Hindi was a codified, Sanskritised form, ment of Official Language Hindi'.
written only in a single script (Devanagari),
and with additional official vocabulary THE DEMoGrAPHIC rISE oF HINDI
translated from English. Both Gandhi and The birth rate in the large northern states
Nehru argued in favour of Hindustani where Hindi is widely spoken is higher than
becoming the national language, rather in many non-Hindi-speaking areas. This
than Hindi, but a linguistic partition, in means that, over time, the balance of Hindi
which Urdu and Hindi became clearly speakers is changing. Censuses in recent
separated, ensued. decades show a rise of over 1% per decade
At independence, it was envisaged that in the proportion of Indians claiming Hindi
English would be phased out over a tran- as their first language.
h
>80%
ar
sg
t ti
50-80%
ha
Daman and Diu Orissa
Ch
Dadra and
10-20% Nagar Haveli Maharashtra
>10%
Andhra Pradesh
aka
Goa
Karnat
Pondicherry
Tamil Nadu
Ker
Minority languages
Although most Indian states were THE THrEE-LANGUAGE ForMULA
defined along linguistic boundaries, One of the key language planning instru-
there are many language minorities. ments in education is the ‘three-language
formula’, which is intended to negotiate the
competing claims of the regional language,
When the state boundaries were estab- Tamil 0.4% Hindi 0.3% also:
lished after independence, it was appreci- Marati 2% Telegu 0.25%
Malayalam 0.15%
ated that however the lines were drawn, English 1%
Urdu Sanskrit 0.004%
they would create minority communities 8%
who spoke a different language from the
majority in their new state. Their needs
were recognised, but not without also
noting the danger that providing too many
safeguards for linguistic minorities would
Kannada 88%
tend to keep the minority consciousness
alive and thereby hamper the growth of a
'common nationhood'.
As India reinvents itself in a new era, of
a globalised economy and social mobility,
1.43 Karnataka government primary schools by
linguistic diversity will prove to be an medium of instruction (total 46,937 schools). All
important resource both economically states have to provide for significant language
and, through multilingual development, for minorities by providing at least primary education in
national integration. the mother tongue.
ENDANGErED LANGUAGES
India has more endangered languages than
any other country, according to UNESCO
which has identified 196 Indian languages
at risk of extinction. In February 2010, the
death of the last speaker of Aka-Bo, a Great
Andamanese language was announced –
just three months after another language in
the Andamans Islands lost its last speaker.
The government’s 11th Five-Year Plan pro-
posed a ‘new scheme for the preservation
and development of languages not covered
by the Eighth Schedule’, to be managed by
the Central Institute of Indian Languages in
Mysore. UNESCO’s project on endangered
languages recognises the importance of
traditional knowledge transmission within 1.44 India and surrounding areas, showing approx-
communities, and the need to strengthen imate location of languages listed as endangered in
the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages, 2009.
ties between the older and younger gen-
Many of these languages are in the Himalayan zone,
erations – often weakened by the choice of others in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
medium of education in school.
Multilingualism
Although India is thought of as a BILINGUALISM IN INDIA
multilingual country, it is not clear how By the time of the 1991 census, almost
many people actually speak more than 20% of the population claimed they knew a
one language. second language and over 7% a third one,
and the rate of bilingualism was growing
» The official language of India is ‘Hindi in the Devanagari script’, but Hindi is
not the national language.
» Each state has declared its own official language or languages. These include
Non-Scheduled languages, such as English and French.
» The rising use of English in India has not been at the expense of Hindi, which
is also growing in use.
» There are growing parallels between the European Union and India in terms
of the number of languages which language policies need to take account of,
and the potential tensions between English, regional and minority languages.
the vernacular languages were broadly and speaking talent’, so Bentinck needed to
prominently admitted by all parties, and the help the seminaries improve the ‘employ-
question submitted for the decision of government ability skills’ of their graduates.
only concerned the relative advantage of teaching
English on the one side, and the learned eastern wHo wANTED ENGLISH?
languages on the other. Apart from this rather practical and economic
need, it seems the British had little desire to
Macaulay’s Minute, far from being a central impose English on India, though the Anglicists
one in the history of English-medium edu- themselves had differing motives. Macaulay
cation in India, really deserves little more was keen to bring into India ideas from
than a footnote. Macaulay’s biographer, modern science and technology, which had
John Clive (1973) suggests that ‘much of begun to transform European society and
the battle over English education had, in economies, and he saw English as the vehicle.
fact, been fought and won before Macaulay But British administrators championed ver-
ever set foot in India’. nacular education and largely resisted local
Focus on the Minute has distracted pressure to fund more English schools,
generations from understanding the wider However, the shift to local recruitment
socio-economic and political context in in the EIC after 1833 meant that well-paid
which English rapidly became so dominant new jobs became available throughout
in India. India to English speakers in public service.
This alone ensured that higher educa-
AFTEr 1833 tion became largely English-medium.
The 1833 charter renewal was pivotal in the The British thus successfully created an
history of the East India Company. Before, it English-speaking elite.
had been a trading company, albeit with a Lord Bentinck was one of the first to
growing role in administering territories under imagine India as becoming one day an
its control. But the 1833 charter divested it of integrated national entity. Macaulay himself
trading activity, making it little more than an seemed convinced that British efforts to
administrative agency for the British Crown. improve Indian education would eventually
The Governor-General, Lord Bentinck, result in independence – the loss of the
was sent to prepare the company for the American colonies 50 years earlier was
change by cutting administrative costs. He fresh in political memory. But, as Macaulay
intended to employ local clerks to replace put it bluntly in a speech to the House of
the ‘writers’ who had been shipped out at Commons in 1833, before he left Britain for
great expense from Britain. Unfortunately, India, ‘To trade with civilised men is infinitely
he found a shortage of local ‘English- more profitable than to govern savages’.
ENGLISH IN INDIA
speak Hindi
hp
roficien
English in India
Trends and issues
B1 A2 A1
ig c
y
H
hp
roficien
» The story of how English came to India is still a contested issue in ideological
debate inLmodern
ow India. However,
cy there are intriguing parallels between the
proficien
arguments over English in the 19th century and those today.
» No one reallyNo
knows how many Indians speak English today – estimates vary
English
between 55 million and 350 million – between 1% of the population and a
third.
» English is now closely associated with wider social and political aspirations.
Where English was once a language of the elite, now demand is coming from
lower castes and rural areas.
Kachru, Braj (2004) Asian Englishes : beyond Sen, Susnato (2008) The Delhi and Mumbai
the canon. Hong Kong : Hong Kong Corridor – India’s Engine of Future
University Press. Economic Growth. Infrastructure
magazine May 2008. Tata Strategic
R. Kumar (ed.) (2009) India: The Impact of
Management Group.
Mobile Phones. Policy Paper 9. Vodafone
Group Plc. World Bank (2008) Rural Roads. A lifeline for
www.vodafone.cu/etc/medialib/ villages in India. www.worldbank.org/
public_policy_series.Par.56572.File.dat/ sartransport
public_policy_series_9.pdf World Bank (2009) Information and
Mukherjee, A. K. (2009) This Gift of English: Communications for Development 2009:
English education and the formation of Extending Reach and Increasing Impact.
alternative hegemonies in India. New go.worldbank.org/NATLOH7HV0
Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
NASSCOM-A.T. Kearney (2008) Location
Roadmap for it- BPO Growth
www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/
NormalPage.aspx?id=53873
Learning
English in
India
70 english next india • part two • learning english in india
english next india • part two • learning english in india 71
PART TWO INTRODUCTION
Hence it seems that the argument which This divide between ‘private’ and ‘public’
so occupied Macaulay and his colleagues has historically reflected the divide between
in the 19th century is still very much alive English-medium and vernacular-medium
today. The circumstances may appear to schools. In other words, an elite minority
be new, but perhaps the underlying prob- learns through English medium in school,
3 Secondary school
Secondary schools (15–18) have traditionally focused on teaching English as a subject,
and/or teaching subjects through English medium. Neither approach is very effective in
developing skills in using the language.
5 Universities/colleges
Universities and colleges have recently become more concerned about the ‘employability’ of
their graduates and many now offer co-curricular courses in English communication skills.
6 Workplace/corporate training
Many employers help make up a skills gap by in-house training. For example, a BPO might
recruit a candidate at B1 level and train intensively to B2.
HE
24 MPhil/PhD
23
MTech
MEd
TERTIARY/HIGHER
22
MBBS (Medicine)
MBA
BEd
Dip
PG
21
(Engineering)
LLB (Law)
BE/ BTech
ITIs/Polytechnics
20
teachier
Primary
training
Undergraduate
19
18
school
12
Open
SECONDARY
Technical
10
school
schools
Open
15 Lower secondary school
9
14
8
Non-formal
centres
13
7 Upper primary school
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
12
6
11
5
Non-formal centres
10
4
9
3 Lower primary school
8
2
7
1
6
KG
5 Pre-primary/Kindergarten
Class Age
2.3 India’s education system (various sources). The education system loosely follows the British model, and
is sometimes described as 10+2+3 (10 years’ schooling to matriculation at 16, two years’ preparation for
university, three years’ undergraduate study). There is slight variation between states in the divisions between
primary and upper primary, upper primary and secondary, and secondary and higher/senior secondary. Year
groups are traditionally called ‘Standard’, but ‘Class’ is also used. The US term ‘Grade’ is also heard, but more
recent terminology introduced in the English national curriculum (such as ‘Key Stage’) is not used.. This book
refers to ‘Class’, followed by an Arabic, rather than Roman, number.
SECoNDAry ENroLMENT
40
Enrolment in Indian secondary schools (at
30
just over 53% in lower secondary, and 28%
in upper secondary) is, according to a recent 20
report by the World Bank (2009) ‘far inferior
10
to ... its global competitors in East Asia’. The
secondary sector is the next to be tackled: 0
0
15 4
20 16
20 18
0
2
2
-0
-0
-0
-1
20 -1
-2
-0
-0
-1
-
99
05
07
09
13
17
19
01
03
11
19
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
programme (RMSA) is intended to improve 2.5 Historic and projected growth of secondary
enrolment and facilities in secondary schools. school enrolment (World Bank, 2009)
• A minimum 40-week academic year for The right to primary education is now a
fundamental right of an Indian citizen. Article 45
Class 1–5 and a minimum four-hour day. is rewritten: ‘The State shall endeavour to provide
• Government schools will set up a manage- early childhood care and education for all
children until they complete the age of six years’.
ment committee consisting of at least 75%
parents and 50% women, which will monitor 2009 The right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Bill, 2009
the use of funds and prepare a school
development plan.
• Children should be admitted to the class
appropriate to their age and should not
be held back. If required, special support
should be given to allow a child to catch up.
• Any child who completes elementary educa-
tion (Class 8) shall be awarded a certificate. 2.6 The ubiquity of the SSA logo is a reminder of the
investment being made in elementary education.
Improving quality
The priority in schools must now be to mary schools. A national picture of learning
improve the standard of learning, whilst outcomes in rural areas is now provided by
continuing to improve infrastructure. ASER (Annual State of Education Report),
part of Pratham, India’s largest educational
causes, some relating to the teachers are unlikely to acquire many functional
and their training, some to the institutional skills in English. John Kurrien, Director
contexts in which they work, some to the of the Centre for Learning Resources, a
methodologies and textbooks they use, Pune-based NGO, looked more closely at
and yet others to the social background the written English skills of 100 Class 10
and family circumstances of the students students in Maharashtra. He concluded that
themselves. This makes it extremely difficult passing state exams was no indicator of
to identify any single intervention which actual writing ability:
might remediate the situation. It also means
Class 10 students [100 students in eight rural
that improvement at primary level will take and two urban government regional medium
much longer to achieve than is needed to schools] — most of them selected by their
meet the dual aspirations to improve access teachers as among the best in English — were
to secondary and higher education, whilst asked to write as much as possible about their
improving the quality of learning outcomes favourite film star.
at each stage.
The situation seems scarcely better in About half of these ‘best’ students were unable
secondary schools. The World Bank carried to write a single correct sentence, or at best
out a small-scale assessment of learning could manage only one correct sentence. While
outcomes in Rajasthan and Orissa, using less than 10 per cent were able to write more
similar tests as used in the PISA international than five correct sentences, the subsequent
surveys. In a report released in September board examination results declared a few months
2009, they concluded that the results: later indicated that more than 80 per cent of all
candidates passed in English in the state. (The
suggest that the quality of instruction and
Times of India 22 July 2008)
learning is very low. ... On the other hand, the
top performing 5% of students in Orissa and
Rajasthan performed far higher, on average, than
The track record of secondary schools in
most of their peers around the world, including
developing written English skills is dismal,
in OECD countries (Das and Zajonc, 2007). The
but now the priority is for speaking skills,
sheer size of India’s student population translates
and to start the business of English teaching
this small percentage into a large absolute
in primary schools.
number of high performing children.
This will require well-trained and qualified
teachers, using communicative methods
English has traditionally been taught mainly to engage young learners, but introducing
in secondary schools, meaning that in the teaching of English into schools where
some states the majority of children never trained teachers and suitable textbooks do
attend an English lesson. Those who do not exist will magnify educational failure.
Ot
he
Ka
rs
nn
part from in those states which have ad
3%
Gu a
adopted English as their official lan- jara 4
ti 4 %
%
guage, the general pattern in India has long
Tamil 4%
been for children in government schools to Hindi
Telegu 5% 49%
be taught in a regional language, and for
children in private schools to be taught
7%
through English. lish
Eng
7%
This is the pattern which was envisaged
8%
i
th
by the British administration in the 19th
ra
li
Benga
Ma
century, by the likes of Macaulay and
Bentinck. Lord Curzon, in an educational
2.7 Proportions of children taught through each
review in 1905, confirmed that approach: language medium at primary school (Based on DISE
data, 2008)
As regards the vernaculars, which must for
long be the sole instrument for the diffusion of
knowledge among all except a small minority of
English to some extent before they enter
the Indian people, we found them in danger of
primary school, or come from homes in
being neglected and degraded in the pursuit of
which English is spoken. They hear people
English, and in many cases very bad English, for
speaking in English every day. They see
the sake of its mercantile value. By all means let
their parents reading a daily newspaper
English be taught to those who are qualified to
in English. They attend a well-equipped
learn it; but let it rest upon a solid foundation of
English-medium school staffed by well-
the indigenous languages, for no people will ever
qualified teachers.
use another tongue with advantage that cannot
The term ‘convent school’ is often used as
first use its own with ease.
a generic term for the best English-medium
private schools, indicating their origin as a
place that sought to provide students not
THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING ELITE only with high levels of scholarship, but
A small percentage of the Indian population also values. Students from such schools
belongs to an elite layer of society which is provide a high-flying intake to universities,
able to negotiate each stage of the educa- especially institutions such as IIMs and IITs,
tion system with relative ease. Many speak which do not apply reservation quotas.
This demographic group was frequently At each stage in the education system,
mentioned in interviews with employers in the three-language formula expects that
the corporate sector as a major source of a language other than the current medium
recruitment. Some interviewees admitted of education will be taught as a subject,
that they specifically target convent- often as a preparation towards shifting to
school-educated candidates. study through that language at the next
educational level.
SErIAL MoNoLINGUAL EDUCATIoN Secondary education is often associated
The medium of education has long been with a move up the language hierarchy,
a site of ideological struggle in India. The with most schools teaching either through
three-language formula, first codified in the regional language, Hindi or English.
1968, has guided educational policy, and However, only around 60% of the 14–16 age
envisages that all children will have a first, group reach this stage, and there is signifi-
second and third language by the end of cant drop-out during the secondary years,
their compulsory education. However the with only 28% of students reaching Class
way such languages are taught does not 11–12. At college and university, the propor-
create trilingual citizens, and minority- tion of courses taught through English is
language speakers often suffer from having very much higher, though the participation
the regional language designated as their rate in higher education is only around 12%.
‘first’ language. This approach might best be called ‘serial
In most states, primary education is pro- monolingual’ education but it illustrates the
vided in regional and minority languages, usual working of the three-language for-
in addition to English. Only 7% of children mula. This remains the policy at a national
officially attend English-medium primary level. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal recently
schools, though this figure probably under- restated the policy:
estimates the real number.
We need our children to learn mother tongue,
The principle allows most children to Hindi and English -- mother tongue for better
begin their education in their mother understanding of the subjects at elementary
tongue. In the case of minority-language stage, Hindi at secondary stage for integrating
children, such as those who speak tribal to national level and English at university level
languages, more is now being done to for connecting to the world (Indian Express, 14
support mother-tongue learning in early September 2009)
years, but it is typically seen as a transi-
tional arrangement, preparing children for However, a broad consensus seems now to
study in the regional language as soon as be emerging that a goal of Indian education
possible. should be to create multilingual speakers.
schools at an earlier age and more I want to hear her speak English. If Chennai
22 Up the English
20
escalator
A new orthodoxy has emerged in
18 the education systems of many
16 C2 (CPE/ IELTS 7.0) countries across the world.
A1 (IELTS 2.0)
2 Begin teaching at least part of
the curriculum through English
2.14 Desirable age-proficiency levels in the traditional EFL curriculum. at secondary school. Possibly
Although patterns varied from country to country this did not matter
provide specialist support by
much as little else was dependent on a student’s knowledge of English.
English teachers.
Teacher training
There is a need to improve the skills of
teachers at all levels in the education
Primary
system, but the current demand for Graduate 12%
English has created a crisis. 20%
45
40
35
aids. 25
qualifications.
0
In some states, the majority of teachers in A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2
8 Schools
C1 (CAE/ IELTS 6.5) level needed for
academic study
A1 (IELTS 2.0)
» The the passing of the ‘Right to free and compulsory education’ act in
2009 represents a landmark in Indian education, but implementing its
provisions will take time.
» There is a danger that the rush to English in primary schools will widen
the social gap in educational outcomes.
Research
of English may prove an obstacle to all institutions
0.6%
three. Others (includes Law,
Management, MCA/IT,
Agriculture, etc.)
12%
a
25
Henry Whitehead (Bishop of
Madras), 1890s
20
It is no exaggeration to say that at least 60 per cent
of the students at the various universities ought not to
percent of candidates
interaction
Spoken
comprehension
Listening
comprehension
Reading
Writing
appropriacy
Sociolinguistic
haps interactions with customers need to
conform to a corporate policy. For these
reasons, workplace English training is best
carried out using materials taken from the
workplace itself. In India the main focus
C2
seems now to be on the idea of ‘English for Candidate A
C1
employability’, but the research for English
Target profile
Next India has highlighted the equal impor- B2
Accuracy
Fluency
Interaction
Pronunciation
roLE ProFILING
BPOs face a particular challenge: they
need large numbers of proficient speakers
2.24 An example of role profiling using the CEFR,
of English, but work in a very cost-sensitive used by the British Council for use in a BPO
market. Role profiling allows employers to
identify the minimum level of skill required Profiling helps recruiters select candi-
to carry out a particular job function. For dates, but can also be used to audit the
example, 2.24 shows a profile designed by skills of existing employees and so identify
the British Council for a BPO, in which ‘lis- areas requiring further training.
tening comprehension’ and ‘sociolinguistic However, the value of profiling lies partly
appropriacy’ are required at higher levels in the need to make explicit the competen-
than writing. The lower profile shows how cies needed in particular job roles – what
the overall requirement for ‘spoken inter- an employer imagines is needed is not
action’ at the B2 level in the CEFR can be always what an employee actually finds
further subdivided into separate sub-skills. most crucial in everyday work.
Employability skills
what are the ‘employability skills’ There are at least two reasons for this per-
needed by school-leavers and ennial skills shortage. First, a fast-moving
graduates? why are employers always and expanding economy needs an ever
complaining that new recruits and more skilled workforce, year on year. Any
candidates lack them? education system struggles to upgrade the
level of its students fast enough. Second,
the question of employability is not just a
20
15
10
Beyond School
5
Trends and issues
0
IELTS Band <4 4 5.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
CEFR Level B1 B2 C1
ASER (2010) Annual State of Education PROBE (2009) School education: struggling
Report for 2009. to learn. The Hindu, 20 February.
www.hindu.com/2009/02/20/
Economic and Political Weekly (2010)
stories/2009022052911000.htm
Degrees of Disparity. Editorial in issue of
6 February 2010. World Bank (2009) Secondary Education in
India: Universalizing Opportunity. World
Faust, D. and Nagar, R. (2001) Politics of Bank, Human Development Unit, South
Development in Postcolonial India:
Asia Region.
English-Medium Education and Social
Fracturing. Economic and Political
Weekly, 28 July 2001
Policy implications
108 english next india • part three • policy implications
english next india • part three • policy implications 109
PART THREE INTRODUCTION
Existing English teachers who have spent – but it has a different language situation,
their careers teaching grammar and litera- lacks a colonial legacy related to English
ture may not have the skills to teach spoken (outside Hong Kong) and educational deci-
English – now regarded as the starting point sions are taken in a different political con-
for most English curriculums. text. India is also unusual in having built its
Increasing the amount of English in recent economic growth on human capital,
the curriculum is typically a part of wider rather than natural resources (e.g. oil) or
educational reforms, in which teachers low-cost labour (manufactured exports).
of other subjects need to be redeployed.
Labour laws may require otherwise redun- IS ENGLISH A DISTrACTIoN?
dant teachers (of physical education, There is an urgent need in India to improve
for example) to be retrained as English the quality of education at all levels, and to
teachers. broaden access to it. English has become
Teaching English to young learners is a the hallmark of a good education in India,
special challenge in development contexts: for historical reasons connected to the
teachers of younger age groups often have development of the elite classes. But has
a lower level of education than secondary English now become part of the problem,
teachers, and are least likely to have good by creating an unhelpful distraction from
English language skills. more serious underlying issues? Will the
demand for universal access to English
wHAT IS UNIqUE ABoUT INDIA? ultimately lead to a greater inequality in
This discussion provides a useful reminder Indian society? These are some of the dif-
that many of India’s challenges with regard ficult questions which policy-makers have
to English language education are shared to confront.
by other developing countries. Indeed, English Next India has unhelpfully uncov-
some countries face even greater chal- ered evidence for both points of view. Access
lenges than India: Cameroon’s population to English in Indian society has traditionally
of 16 million speak as many languages as in been inseparable from access to privilege.
India, but the country has the added com- Wider access to English is now demanded by
plication of two former colonial languages employers, parents, lower castes, in rural and
– French and English – and the widespread urban areas alike.
use of Cameroonian Pidgin English. But there is also considerable evidence
What makes India unique is the combina- that, without care, a greater emphasis on
tion of size and complexity. China is the only English in education will allow only a few more
developing country which can match India to benefit, and possibly make the situation of
for size – in both population and economy the majority even worse.
This part of the book identifies some of the key policy issues
related to English in India, drawing on the analysis made in
earlier sections, and on a debate which a draft edition of
the book stimulated amongst delegates at a conference
organised by the British Council in Delhi in November
2009. Edited contributions to the Third Policy Dialogue are
included in this section, and full webcasts of the original
contributions can be accessed * at:
http://englishnext.in/0
English is like Windows. It is an operating system. Your employment outcomes are higher if your
labour mobility is higher. So the unintended consequence of the Baptists [missionaries] going to
the North East [of India] is that a migrant from the North East, whether it is Shillong or wherever,
gets 8000 rupees a month with me while a migrant from UP and Bihar gets 3500 rupees a
month. Why? Because they speak English and they go to the front office. ...
There is a missing middle in our job market. The ‘hero or zero’ market, right? You are either
working in the unorganised sector, Rs 3000, or you are working with Infosys at Rs 30,000.
What happened to the average skill, Rs 8000 jobs?
As India aspires to grow 8–9% and integrates with the global economy, the service industry
will grow, and the moment you talk about service industry, it is about people interacting
with people, and in communication, language becomes important. And that’s not only true
for people in the organised sector, it is as true for people who are in tourism, for people
driving taxis, for people who are guides, for people in hotels. ... it could become a hindrance
if we didn’t have more people able to communicate in English and understand English.
The rural youth, especially the poor, are very motivated. If the employer is good, they stay
with him for longer. And the other important thing which is now happening is the rural
markets are becoming very important. The rural youth know these markets best. ... The
importance of English is not just the first job – if they use their English in companies like
McDonald and Café Coffee Day, then they move quickly up to the next rung of supervisors.
All impact studies show that when the poor get a job, the first thing they do is they retire
high cost debt because the moneylender’s debt is extremely high and that really keeps
them in the vicious circle of poverty. The second thing they do is if that boy or girl is not
educated, always the younger brother or sister is educated. They invest in assets like land
or a roof above the head and the family gets out of poverty in a sustained manner because
versus erratic income for the first time fixed income starts coming in month in and month
out and even if the job is in the urban area, he sends back money home.
16
14 C2 (College Year 2)
10 B2 (Class 10)
8 B1 (Class 8)
25-50%
50-75%
>75%
Pondicherry
Tamil Nadu
Ker
Lakshadweep
3.2 Percentage of Class 8 children in rural schools who can read and understand easy sentences (ASER, 2010)
English does not stand alone. It needs to find I found actually it made no difference
its place along with other languages in India whether it was an English school or a
so that the languages spoken by children vernacular school. The language was the
strengthen English learning and teaching. same, the communication levels were the
same, reading and writing was the same.
Secondly, I think it also has to be seen in
relation to other subject areas because
treating English separately has created
Chetan Bhagat, Author
a lot of problems in the Indian schools. A
http://englishnext.in/8
language-across-the-curriculum perspective
is of relevance to primary education. We I always say Hindi is like the mother, English
need to integrate it with the teaching of is like the wife, and you can love both. Just
other subject areas like mathematics, don’t ask who you love more – ever.
environmental science, art education, etc..
Professor Ajit Mohanty, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, jawaharlal Nehru University
http://englishnext.in/9
English is gradually being moved to Grade 1. Regardless of the fact that it has been shown
in India ... that it isn’t required. It’s more ... Ministers of Education competing with each other
to cater to the popular demands – the uninformed choices of people.
Multilingualism in India is not just a number of languages. It’s a way of life, a life in which
languages complement each other. Languages are porous; they move into each other. As
a result, you need multiple languages. Therefore, education should become multilingual in
India. Develop mother tongue competence and then develop English at a later point in time
to have better English and faster learning of English
English teaching cannot be monolingual. ... In multilingual societies, multiple languages can
be used to communicate in the classroom ... it is perfectly all right to use a child’s mother
tongue, to use the child’s languages in the classroom. ... it’s necessary to use a multilingual
method of teaching of English in the classroom where children are encouraged to think
about languages and that reflection, that awareness of languages or metacognitive or
metalinguistic skill is what makes language teaching more effective. ... it’s not a question of
how many languages we have, it’s a question of whether there is an adequate methodology
to inculcate that multilingual competence in each child.
I believe English is about access, it is one of the tools of access that we need to provide
all our people. I have always advocated the teaching of English to everybody so that they
get access to modern society. ... English has been limited to a few people, and people who
have not learned English have been denied a chance to participate in society, because a
lot of our education, a lot of our jobs, are in this English-speaking world. ... If you really want
inclusive growth, part of inclusive growth is making English access ubiquitous.
One of the big uses of my books in small town India is that of using it as a tool to learn
English. I was invited to a talk in Bastar, a backward area ten hours’ drive from the nearest
airport of Raipur. I asked them ‘who reads Chetan Bhagat in Bastar?’ They said ‘tribal kids,
they use your books to learn English’. It shows you the hunger. For my recent book, we did
a round of simplification editing, so that the book is more accessible to Indians. Of course,
critics in India hate me for it. But that’s what critics do anyway, and if I am getting a chance
to aid transforming a young person’s life, I am not going to pass up on that.
There is something about the way you do business which comes from your own earth, your
own soil, your own wisdom, which is carried in your own language. I see a lot of people in
the urban Indian population, young people, who actually have no roots whatsoever. ...they
really don’t know India and who the rest of India is, what they say and why they say it.
They have completely lost the Indian idiom. Which is not a good thing to happen. So, while
English is a desirable thing to have, we must ask this question as to whether India’s first
language is going to be English, or second language or third language or is it a language
of choice whenever you want it. ... I am afraid sometimes, that India is so dominated by
people who can speak English and who cannot speak any other language. I don’t mind if it
is dominated by people who speak two or three languages.
We are too busy being flat with the rest of the world. Of course, you can go to New York
and speak all the English you want – American English. But when you deal in India, to make
your Indian population comfortable, I think it is possible for corporate India to speak Indian
English, or Hinglish, and say ‘this is who I am’.
Managing change
one of the biggest challenges is how – especially teachers – have knowledge
to introduce and manage a major and experience which will be crucial to
innovation such as English in primary the project’s success. Positioning them
schools, reconciling the tensions which as unknowledgeable is likely to lead to
often exist between the needs of failure. They need to be made partners.
different stakeholders.
THE ProBLEM oF SCALE
1 It requires a partnership between all stake- A baby and a dwarf are both small but the baby
holders. Stakeholders include all parts is going to grow and the dwarf is going to stay
of the education system (from school there. The difference between a baby and a dwarf
principals to exam boards), parents, com- is not in the food, it is in DNA, it is in componen-
munity leaders, politicians and employers. tisation, temporisation, standardisation, human
In a development context, there often capital investments, and technology investments.
exists a bewildering array of stakeholders
and identifying them and ensuring they
TIMESCALES
become enthusiastic about a change
The project to create a population of English
project may be a challenge.
speakers is a long-term one which will take
2 Continued support over time. Many several generations. It took the northern
unsuccessful projects have failed to European countries, where the majority of
support teachers, schools and com- the adult population can now speak English,
munities after the initial investment or 50–60 years to reach this stage.
training. Implementation takes time, and NGOs have demonstrated how parents, sib-
obstacles and needs change as a project lings and extended families play a crucial role
develops. in improving educational attainment in India.
This intergenerational process shows that con-
3 Recognition that teachers possess impor-
tinuity of political will and investment needed is
tant experience. Any training programme
to achieve universal access to English. A vital
needs to recognise that stakeholders
ingredient of success is patience.
One the things that scares me is how are we going to scale our programmes? Are we going to
tweak our system or are we going to disrupt our system? I think given the scale of the issue and
given the opportunity that exists, we need to disrupt the system. ... We sometimes worry that this
country is becoming a country of pilots. It’s good. Those pilots are good. But then how are you
going to disrupt the process ... if we have to make a large-scale change, all of us collectively
have to find ways of getting that access
Martin Wedell, Director of International Development at the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK
http://englishnext.in/14
It’s a big challenge for a teacher to move from the familiarity of a more transmission-based
classroom to the much more unpredictable world of being a facilitator. ... the transition has often
been thought to be: ‘Okay. It’s just a matter of training. We just need to train the teachers’. Training
them appropriately would be hard enough, but ... there are also invisible changes that need to take
place in many minds if teachers are going to be supported to make that transition. The changes
to societal assumptions about what a good teacher is, what the classroom should be like, and how
good learners behave.... I would say that it really represents a professional culture change.
124 english next india • afterword, key sources, acknowledgements, abbreviations, figures and tables
Key sources
ASEr Acts as a research organisation dedicated
Annual State of Education Report to education reform and the modernisation
asercentre.org/ of the school curriculum.
www.ncert.nic.in/index.htm
CENSUS oF INDIA
Data from the 2001 census National Curriculum Framework 2005
www.censusindia.gov.in/ www.ncert.nic.in/html/framework2005.htm
National focus group on English (2006)
DEPArTMENT oF oFFICIAL LANGUAGE www.ncert.nic.in/html/focus_group.htm
www.rajbhasha.gov.in/
NCEUS
DISE National Commission for Enterprises in the
District Information System for Education Unorganized Sector
Detailed data about primary schools. Key reports on employment (Ministry of
Maintained by the NUEPA for the MHRD Small Scale Industries)
www.dise.in/ www.nceus.gov.in/
www.schoolreportcards.in/
NCTE
INDIA 2009 National Council for Teacher Education
Reference manual published by Ministry of Statutory body coordinating teacher
Information and Broadcasting training
www.publicationsdivision.nic.in/others/ www.ncte-india.org
india_2009.pdf
PLANNING CoMMISSIoN
MINISTry oF HUMAN rESoUrCE DEVELoPMENT
This is the government department which
The ministry responsible for education
www.education.nic.in/ carries out the research and consultations
necessary to produce the 5 year plans.
NATIoNAL BUDGETS AND ECoNoMIC SUrVEyS www.planningcommission.gov.in/
Ministry of Finance posts budget speeches
UNESCo
and economic surveys here
www.indiabudget.nic.in/ Education for all report 2009
www.unesco.org/en/efareport/reports/2009-
governance/
NATIoNAL KNowLEDGE CoMMISSIoN
www.knowledgecommission.gov.in/
worLD BANK
english next india • afterword, key sources, acknowledgements, abbreviations, figures and tables 125
ACKNowLEDGEMENTS
126 english next india • afterword, key sources, acknowledgements, abbreviations, figures and tables
ABBrEVIATIoNS
english next india • afterword, key sources, acknowledgements, abbreviations, figures and tables 127
FIGUrES AND TABLES
1.1 Distribution of the world’s 5- to 9-year-old 1.41 Map of the ‘Hindi Belt’
children 1.42 Official language policy
1.2 India’s age profile in 2019 1.43 Karnataka government primary schools by
1.3 India’s growing population medium of instruction
1.4 India’s young/old population 1.44 Endangered languages in India
1.5 Changing dependency ratios 1.46 Scripts on a ten-rupee note
1.6 India’s Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled 1.47 English – the Dalit goddess
Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes 1.48 Proportion of the population who can read
(OBC) or speak English
1.7 Religious composition of India 1.49 Circles of proficiency in English
1.8 Literacy development in a divided society 2.2 Enrolments in the Indian education system
1.9 Religion and caste 2.3 India’s education system
1.10 Household income groups 2.5 Historic and projected growth of second-
1.12 Urbanisation rates ary school enrolment
1.13 Twenty cities to watch 2.7 Proportions of children taught through
1.14 Population by state each language medium, primary school
1.15 How the demographic dividend may move 2.9 Percentage of rural children 6–14 attend-
north ing private schools by state
1.17 Growth of per capita income 2.14 Typical desirable age proficiency levels,
traditional EFL curriculum
1.18 Changing structure of GDP
2.15 Idealised age proficiency levels, global
1.19 The top ten economies, 2050 English curriculum
1.22 Structure of employment in India 2.16 Rural–urban difference in English tests,
1.23 Expected workforce 2012 Taiwan
1.25 Top ten IT-BPO employers 2.17 Academic attainment of primary school
teachers
1.28 Tier 2 cities which are BPO ‘challengers’
and ‘followers’ 2.20 Proficiency levels, Class 5 teachers, Tamil
Nadu
1.29 Readership of daily newspapers
2.21 Distribution of enrolment in higher educa-
1.30 Top ten English daily newspapers 2009 tion by institution type
1.31 TV programming for 4–14 year-olds in 2.23 Comparison of proficiency bands of IELTS
Kolkata candidates, 2007
1.32 Growth of domestic air travel 2.24 Role profiling using CEFR
1.35 Growth of mobile phones and landlines 3.1 Possible target levels of English at exit
1.36 Top 12 internet sites in India points in education
1.38 Languages of India 3.2 Map of English levels of Class 8 rural
students in India
1.39 Official languages of states and Union Ter-
ritories
1.40 National growth in speakers of Hindi as a
first language
128 english next india • note, reading list, acknowledgements, figures and tables
David Graddol is a British applied linguist,
well-known as a writer, broadcaster,
researcher and consultant on issues
relating to global English. He is the
Managing Director of The English
Company (UK) Ltd and Managing Editor
of linguistics books and journals for
Equinox Publishing. David is a joint
editor of the journal English Today, and
is a member of the editorial boards of
several academic journals, including
Language Problems and Language
Planning and Visual Communication.
ISBN: 978-086355-627-2
David Graddol