Student Literacy Letter

I am writing this letter to you in my personal capacity thinking the present government is sympathetic with the plight of Indian languages and will not let them continue to be languished and disregarded by the regulators and policy makers of higher education.

As we all know, despite having rich literary and cultural heritage all the Indian languages listed in 8th schedule of the constitution of India are in a pathetic condition as far as today’s higher education is concern. This has happened only because we promoted English in higher education at the expense of regional languages. We miserably failed in empowering regional languages as languages of knowledge and technology as mandated and proposed by several commissions and educationists.

NAAC has adopted seven criteria format for assessment which includes Global Competence wherein communicative competence in English is taken into accounts. The NAAC does not bother about Local Competence which is equally important. Colleges having Non-English medium of instruction are also made to present their self- study report and performance before NAAC Peer Team only in English which causes lot of inconvenience to colleges in rural part of the India which deserve to be assessed in the language they are engaged in. Nowhere in the world is language of assessment different from the language of instruction. This is against the principle of natural justice and equality of opportunity. Had it been happened to English medium institutions there would have been lot of hue and cry and the matter would have been reported to the Human Rights Commission. But nobody dare to present the case of colleges having Non-English medium of instruction fearing to be termed as parochial and anti-English. I also observed that, in a peer team reports these colleges are advised to set up language laboratories to enhance their teachers’ and students’ communication skills in English. I understand and appreciate the NAACs concern about lack of proficiency in English among the large section of the society. But UGC and NAAC have never ever shown similar concern about the pathetic condition of Indian languages leave alone, come up with any action plan for their empowerment and modernization. This clearly shows their apathy and callous approach towards regional languages. They are only concerned about the spread of English as it is a language of wider access and greater opportunities. How our very own native languages would then be survive? I am not at all suggesting English to be replaced by native Indian languages. I am all for bilingual, multilingual policy to adopt whereby, we can retain and