We
are aware that our country follows multiple sylabbus such as State Board,
Matric, Anglo Indian, CBSE, ICSE, and such. In State Board schools there is
again an option of Tamil medium and English medium. Children who study in Tamil
medium schools find a difficulty in transition at College level. In order to enable the student to cope up
with the transition, some bridge programmes, like spoken English are being made
available for students. This patch work at this late stage of time, does not really make any significant
difference. Students continue to face the problem, even after they complete
their college. Employabilty becomes a problem, for those who are not fluent in
English. This is not only the case with
Tamil medium students, but also students studying in English medium in rural
parts of the country.
In the above context, I was alarmed to read the
news in the Hindu, which stated “Tamil medium of
instruction will be introduced in B.E. civil and mechanical courses at engineering
colleges in Anna University from the coming academic year as an experimental
measure.”
I
don’t think it is a good way forward plan. While existing engineering college
students are finding it hard to match their job profiles, owing to lack of
English Skills, are we not making the situation worse by doing this in the name
of giving importance to the language.
While it is good to recognize the importance of preserving our language,
let us not blind fold ourselves to the practical realities of the world.
Finland,
which is rated as No.1, in the world for its education, offers education to their students in their mother tongue - Finnish.
Even, when they go to college for higher studies, like Engineering and
Medicine, they learn in Finnish. Finland
has a very small population, and therefore finding a job within the home
country is not a major issue. However,
if a person wants to migrate to a foreign country, seeking a better job he
needs to take the pains of learning a foreign language. Therefore, in spite the
best of education provided to them, their adamancy to stick to their own
language makes it difficult for them to migrate to a foreign land in search of
better openings. The same is true with countries like Japan and Germany.
Japanese
believe that a student should do their studies only in their mother tongue. The
reason they say is that, there is a difference between a “thinking language”
and a “expression language”. A child
learns to think in its mother tongue and it will feel easy to express, what it
thinks in its mother tongue, in its mother tongue itself rather than trying to
find equivalent words in a foreign language to express its thoughts. By making
a child to think for foreign words to express their thoughts, they loose focus
and depth of meaning. Japanese, feel a lot of child’s mental energy will be
drained when it tries to convert every thought into another language. They can
possibly use this energy to learn more things in depth in their native language
itself.
While
their argument stands good, for them, it does not stand good for India. In a
country like India, where there is so much of competition and where pluralistic
languages are in existence, it becomes necessary for a person to study in
English. Only by doing so can a person find himself comfortablly placed some
where, within the country or outside the country. As we even cross the border
of the state, we have a problem in communicating with another indian brother.
With such a situation in place, education in the mother tongue will only limit
a person’s growth and not enhance his growth.
Well,
looking at a broader perspective the purpose of language is nothing more than
just to communicate. Without
communication, you cannot connect with people. Relationship happens where
communication happens. Business happens
where communication happens. Language is therefore a need based tool. When we
need to communciate with a computer, to get things done, we learn the computer
language. So why not learn, English to
communicate with a wider variety of people across the globe. After all English, has only 26 Alphabets.
Therefore, let us not develop a taboo towards learning a foreign language.
Let
language be an enabler to our growth and not a limiting factor for our growth.
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil Kannan
Article
Dated Jan 2011
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