In recent days, there has been an upheaval on this subject with claims and counter-claims, charges and counter-charges, rallies and counter-rallies and what have you. In this charged atmosphere, few are prepared to look at the issue dispassionately. To do this, one needs to collect facts and analyse them before coming to a reasoned conclusion.
At the very outset, it would be profitable to ponder over the general aims and objects of education, especially primary. I do not buy the claim that only education in a regional language or mother tongue fosters patriotism and respect for one's culture. We have enough examples of thorough patriots who were instructed in a foreign tongue as well as of traitors to their own country amongst those who studied in their native tongue; likewise, there are many promoters of culture who never sat on a school bench. To my mind, the main aim of education is to impart to the child such knowledge and skills as will be usable and useful in his life. This will obviously include human and civic values and principles of conduct, which form the very bedrock of good living. If the child is to apply the knowledge so imparted, it is imperative that he understand the matter in the first place. Knowledge is imparted through communication for which the best medium is language, and this needs to be learnt. When the child enters a school, he already knows at least one language, which is referred to as his "mother tongue." Hence, this becomes the best tool to use for instructing him; another language needs to be taught afresh preferably through the mother tongue. If we are to instruct him through this second language, then we shall have to wait until he has acquires some facility in that language. Hence the use of the mother tongue as the first medium of instruction. Sometimes a school imparting education in the child's mother tongue is not available in the neighbourhood, because his language is not prevalent there; in such a situation, the next option is the language of the region in which the child is stationed, because he would be familiar with it through interaction with his playmates. This is the real meaning of the term "regional language" in the present context. Unfortunately, the powers that be have twisted it to mean "a language spoken in any region", a qualification which any language in the world would possess because almost every language is spoken in some specific region, large or small. Having said this let me answer some questions that are doing the rounds, in the light of my own experience. Q. Does sudden change of script at the fifth standard traumatise the child or affect his scholastic performance thenceforth? A. No. Why? Consider the situation of the Goan schoolchild in pre-liberation times. A Hindu child would begin his education through Marathi (Devanagari script). After completing the fourth standard he would suddenly change over to Portuguese and complete the Portuguese (Roman script) classes, Primeiro grau and Segundo grau in just two years! Please note that these are third and fourth standards (not first and second) of the Portuguese Primary stage. Please also note that these children were not even taught ABC in the Marathi school. Yet, they did not suffer any disadvantage, let alone trauma. Almost half my SSC class was Hindu, and all my Hindu classmates had passed fourth standard Marathi and at least primeiro grau in Portuguese, a sine qua non for entry into the IX standard of English high school. None of them was over two years older than me; surprisingly, one of them was six months younger (today, he is a doctor practicing in Margao). This goes to show that they did not spend more than two years in the Portuguese school. If the current claims hold even a modicum of truth, every one of them should have been traumatised twice over, but did not show any signs of this ever having occurred. Q. Does sudden change in the medium of instruction at the fifth standard affect the scholastic career of the child? A. No. Why? Again consider the situation extant in pre-Liberation Goa. Unlike a Hindu child, a catholic child would begin his education directly through Portuguese. But after the primeiro/segundo grau, both Hindu and Catholic children would continue their secondary education in English at the Fifth/Sixth standard. There was a complete and abrupt change in the medium of instruction from Portuguese to English, the phonetics being poles apart. Moreover, those who had passed the segundo grau would skip the Fifth standard and directly enter the Sixth. Yet, none of them suffered any damage to their career. On the contrary, some of the latter did so well in the Sixth that they earned a double promotion to the Eighth! Incidentally, I was one of the five who did this in my class (another was the late Professor Eduardo Judas Barros of the University of Londrina, Brasil) and I went on to secure the first rank in the Eighth. Most of the children completed their SSC (XI standard) in their sixteenth year, and were able to join a college in Mumbai, Pune, Dharwar, etc, where their level of attainment in the English language was in no way inferior to that of their classmates who had spent eleven years in English medium school. This means that they acquired the same degree of aptitude in English in five years, which the others did in eleven! So, who can say they were disadvantaged? In fact, they had the added knowledge of Portuguese language, which the others did not! Based on my experiences as stated above, I can confidently say that Konkani is the most suited medium of instruction for the Goan child today, at the Primary level. Today Goa is poised at the cross-roads of a major decision with regard to the medium of instruction at the Primary school stage. There is a strident agitation to change the medium of instruction in Diocesan schools from Konkani to English. In other words, the agitators want the Diocesan Society of Education to revert to the situation extant prior to 1991. Before the Society arrives at a firm decision either way, it should consider the various pros and cons, keeping in view the future wellbeing of the child. The Society must also evaluate its experience pre and post-1991. One major contention of the pro-changers is that primary education in English increases the employability of the child. This claim needs to be evaluated for its veracity per se. One must also assess the type of employment for which this measure prepares the child, whether such employment will be available to him once he enters the work-force and for how long such employment is likely to last. One must not lose sight of the fact that today the natives of the foreign countries, where our brethren are earning their living, are up in arms demanding employment to locals, a situation which might lead to the exodus of expatriates in the very near future. Thus that door might be closed to our school-going child even before he is ready to enter it. It is therefore essential that today's child is empowered to receive quality education and to follow a scholastic career that will enable him to enter top level posts. In this regard, I would ask myself one question and answer it in the light of my own experience. Q. Will Primary education in English enhance the scholastic career prospects of the Goan child? My answer is No. Why? Fortunately, this is not a hypothetical question the answer to which is to be based on notions and fancies of people who have to shout from the housetops that they possess doctorates to prove their expertise in something or the other. There is concrete data available that can be analysed scientifically. Prior to 1991, all the Diocesan schools in Goa were in the English medium, right from the pre-primary level. The system produced many students who successfully completed their schooling but could not write a single sentence, let alone a paragraph, of their own. The reason is that they went through the entire curriculum by rote learning; they could memorise entire texts and reproduce the same in their exam papers so as to earn high marks. The examinations were also designed to promote this farce. What was memorised for the first examination would not be retained for the second, let alone the next year. This also engendered the whiling away of time during most of the year, the "study" being done only just before the examinations. While teaching at Chowgule College, I had students who had the temerity to request me (in Konkani) to dispense with my explanation of the topic and instead dictate 'good' notes, which they promised to reproduce in their answer scripts so as to enable me to assign 'good' marks, without any qualms. I also received some answers which would have fetched full marks had the question been 'correct'! In contrast, let me relate just two of my other experiences. (a) In one of the colleges I taught in Mumbai, a large majority of students had done their schooling in non-English medium; yet, I never received such a 'request' nor did I dictate notes. (b) In my very first year at Chowgule College, I had a student who had done his SSC (XI standard) in Marathi. His expression in English was really bad. But, through correction from time to time by his teachers, he improved by leaps and bounds; so much that in the Second Year B. Sc. exam of the Bombay University he scored the highest marks in the entire College. Originally from Poingini, Canacona he lives in Margao. However, it is not necessary to rely on my experience alone. This premise can be tested in various ways, preferably through projects conducted by a College of Education, with Government funding. (We have two such colleges.) (a) We can compare the scholastic achievements of students who completed their primary stage (in English) during the five year period 1987-1991 and compare the same with those that completed it (in Konkani) during 1994-1998. The process would be tedious, considering the amount of data that will need handling. But it is not impossible in this age of computerised data-processing. (b) take the X and XII results of the last five years and list out there-from the hundred toppers (this can be done subject-wise as well, to assess the effect of the medium on the child's ability to master a particular subject), mark the primary medium against each and work out the statistics language-wise. The same treatment may be given to (i) the lowest hundred who pass on the borderline and (ii) the lowest hundred among the failed candidates. This would be easier, though it would involve quite some legwork to peruse the admission forms of the candidates at their respective schools. The results of the investigation would not only be instructive, but will also facilitate the adoption of corrective measures for any shortcomings. (c) There are some urban high schools which have their own primary sections teaching in Konkani, and admit more students at the Fifth standard; most of the latter come from English primary schools that charge hefty fees, and are therefore children of affluent parents who can afford to send them for tuitions. Both these groups of students study together from V to X and appear for the same SSC examination. The performance of these two groups can be compared. Let the parents ponder over these matters and let the government arrive at a rational decision on the basis of the results of this investigation. Sebastian Borges (The above article appeared in Navhind Times dated April 03, 2011)
