This is a very disturbing piece of news. One of the biggest reasons India’s been such a powerhouse in the offshoring and outsourcing of technology services and business processing has been the fluency of Indians in English.Thouse most educated Indians speak with an accent, Westerners are able to understand Indians much more easily than eastern Europeans like Russians, Ukranians, etc or the Chinese.
The Karnataka government’s decision to ban teaching in English in public and private schools is nothing more than a short sighted political game aimed at promoting the “superiority” of Kannada, the native language of the state of Karnataka.
In a country like India, the Central Government can’t even take up the issue without inciting riots across the nation. If India is to progress and take its place on the international stage as a Super Power, the politicians must stop playing to the vote and their personal interests and start thinking of what is best for the country and its citizens.
Across Karnataka, some 273,000 students already enrolled in elementary schools (classes 1 to 5) have been told not to study English, and switch over to Kannada.
The ban on English has been enforced in 2,100 private elementary schools across the state. And 1,440 such schools are located in Bangalore.
Read more on Redff.com: Why Karnataka is shutting down English schools
technorati tags:India, Karnataka, Kannada, English, Schools, Education
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Comments
2 responses to “English Schools in Karnataka Shutting Down”
If you think about it, politicians want to have dumber public so that they can do as they please.
As the population gets smarter and educated they will start asking questions and possibly overthrow the government.
What would you do if you are a politician?
I think it’s more than just an example of “The Man” sticking it to “the man” to stay in power. I think there’s a degree of nationalism, or specifically, in this case, regionalism. I think there’s money involved (there usually is), and I think there’s a pinch of sticking it to “the man” as well. People in power don’t want to lose that power, ever. Power is the strongest aphrodesiac ever found by man.
Maybe I’m a bit naive but I would like to think that as a politician, I would further the cause of the nation and the people above and beyond my personal interests. However, I would probably do it using my beliefs. Is it possible that the politicians in this instance are, in fact, pushing this agenda for the purpose of preserving their culture?
Pankaj