Rakesh Wadhwa

Kathmandu:

Private schools do better than government ones in imparting education. They do this because they have to be responsive to their customer’s — in this case the children and their parents — desire. They have no monopoly, and they can cover their costs and make a profit only if they provide what their consumers want.

Government schools do not have to face the rigors of the marketplace, and, therefore, do not decide on basis of what we want for our children. Despite the universal clamour for English, government schools have failed to impart this skill to its students.

If there is a ubiquitous expertise which boys and girls need today, it is the knowledge of English. The government of Nepal is not the only one which has omitted to fulfill this need. State governments in India too have not addressed it. China also has failed, though it is now making amends.

Forced learning in the Nepali medium has raised a generation of youth who are unemployable in decent jobs. The biggest hurdle in the way of a majority of the world’s young securing employment is their inability to communicate in the world’s language.

Nepal’s policy makers must understand that today roughly 25 per cent of world’s population — over one and a half billion — speak in English. This percentage is expected to increase to 75 per cent in the next 30 years. Nepal has a lot of catching up to do, and, catch up it must for the sake of its future generations.

The Chinese have realised that what gives an edge to the Indians is not so much their computer and software skills, it is English. The Chinese leadership understands that it needs assistance to educate its people in English if it wants to continue to grow at its fast pace. If there is anything which can slow China down in the future it will be the time lag in teaching this language to its population.

China wants help from India. In addition to manpower skilled in developing software, it is English teachers that they seek. Recently a minister, in the Indian state of Karnataka, after a visit to China reported that, “members of the standing committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress wanted the help of the Karnataka government in teaching English in its primary schools”.

One would think that this would be enough of a wake-up call for India’s lawmakers. But

no. The very same Karnataka

government still has its head in the sand. Despite intense pressure from students and parents alike, it has yet again decided not to revoke the ban on English in primary schools.

It is dumbfounding that Karnataka which leads the world in selling software still refuses to understand that English is a skill — much like learning Windows. And, therefore, jingoistic politics should be kept away from it.

Contrast this with China which wants that by the time Olympics come to Beijing in 2008, every Chinese must be English literate. Will they achieve this goal? I don’t know, but going by their past record they are surely going to make a very determined effort.

In India and Nepal too, whatever jingoist course the government takes in favour of their own regional and national languages, the people have spoken. They want English and they are going to get it one way or the other.

If the government wants to make the task of its people difficult, it will stay obstinately on course it is now and disregard what the people want. If it wants itself to be the government of the people, by the people, for the people, it will offer them a choice. Let the people decide what the medium of instruction should be.

The vote overwhelmingly will be in favour of prosperity and growth, and the symbol of that is English. It does not mean that other languages will not be taught. People will choose to speak and learn their mother tongues too. They will speak a combination of English and Nepali much as they speak in English and Hindi — called Hinglish — in India. Let that be.

(The writer can be contacted at:

everest@mos.com.np)