Learning English significantly improves labour mobility and plays a crucial role in helping traditionally disadvantaged groups gain access to economic growth.
Kancha Ilaiah, a leading advocate for Dalit rights, argues that India’s education system is divided into two distinct structures: regional language education for Dalit-Bahujan children and English education primarily benefiting upper-caste students. This division, Ilaiah believes, is mirrored in the difference between government and private schools. His efforts led to a movement pushing for government schools in Andhra Pradesh to transition from regional languages to English as the medium of instruction. According to Ilaiah, (a) language and culture are distinct, (b) many proponents of regional languages send their children to private English schools, and (c) English is essential for disadvantaged groups as a vocational skill.
A professor of political science at Osmania University, Ilaiah has successfully convinced the Andhra Pradesh government to introduce English instruction from the sixth grade in 6,500 schools. His ongoing campaign seeks to bring English education to the kindergarten level and influence other states. Ilaiah also suggests rethinking the division of linguistic states and advocates for English to become the national language, believing it would help marginalized groups learn the language of administration and globalization.
Employment prospects for English-speaking youth are 400% higher than those from regional language schools. English provides geographic flexibility, enabling greater labour mobility and offering a significant advantage as the language of business. While language is a sensitive topic, adopting a universal standard—similar to how Windows or internet protocols facilitate broader interoperability—leads to greater integration. In a country with 22 official languages, English serves as a “subsidiary official language”, used in most official and inter-state communication. Historian Ramachandra Guha has highlighted how India’s founding fathers wisely avoided imposing Hindi as the sole official language, which prevented the kind of linguistic tensions seen in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Despite the importance of English, there are drawbacks. Languages embody cultural ethos, and the loss of a language signifies the loss of centuries of human knowledge. David Harrison, a linguistics professor at Swarthmore, argues that when a language dies, we lose unique insights into the natural world, myths, mathematics, and everyday life. Although English is often blamed for contributing to language extinction globally, India is not currently at risk of becoming a language extinction hotspot due to the strength of its cultural heritage.
However, non-English schools in India face poor employment outcomes. English, much like an operating system such as Windows, is crucial for employability in the modern workforce. While regional languages remain culturally significant, making multilingual education (with an emphasis on English) a top priority is key to long-overdue education reforms. Programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have addressed the issue of school enrollment, but now the focus must shift to improving education quality, with English fluency at the heart of creating a more inclusive and relevant system.
Ilaiah’s framing of the English education divide between government and private schools underscores a critical issue. While reforms in areas like labour laws and higher education face challenges due to jurisdictional overlap between state and central governments, the reform of government schools lies solely within the authority of state governments. Private educators have already begun leading the way; for instance, after running five Hindi-medium schools for decades, a principal in Kanpur has switched to English-medium instruction due to the realities of employability.
While reservation policies can help support marginalized communities, creating a more inclusive education and employment ecosystem offers a sustainable solution. English education should be at the forefront of these reforms, providing a scalable and effective way to uplift backward castes and tribes.
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