SG KE TOI India – English Number 3 as medium of instruction

Source: Times of India

Rema Nagarajan | TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

Chennai: With English giving India a huge advantage in the global economy it is only natural that more Indians are opting to educate their children in English medium schools.

What may come as a surprise is the pace at which this is happening. Nationwide enrollment in the upper primary section (class I to VIII) of English medium schools rose 74% between 2003 and 2006. In actual figures, that is a rise from 54.7 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] in 2003 to 95.1 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] students in 2006.

Data collected by the National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) shows that over the same period, enrollment in Hindi medium schools — the dominant language — grew by 24% from 6.3 crore to 7.8 crore.

Interestingly, the growth of English is more in non-Hindi speaking states, mostly the southern states which account for over 60% of the students enrolled in English medium in the three-year period.

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, in that order, account for the highest jump in numbers in English enrollment. TN, which had the largest number of students enrolled in English medium schools in 2003, was outstripped by AP by 2006. That’s because in AP, the number of students enrolled in English medium schools nearly doubled in this period from 10.6 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] to 20.9 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000]. In TN, the numbers jumped from 14.7 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] to 17.2 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] and in Maharashtra from 10.6 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000] to 11.9 lakh [Note: 1 lakh = 100,000].

English also accounts for over 90% of the enrollment in the northeastern states. However, up north, the growth of English has been sluggish except in Punjab and Gujarat where enrollment went up by over 93,000 and 60,000 respectively, not so high when compared to the southern states.

The spurt in English schooling also means it is now the third biggest medium of instruction for upper primary students after Hindi and Marathi. In 2003, there were more students enrolled in Tamil-medium, Telugu-medium and Kannada-medium schools than in those that taught in English. This would be the case for Bengali too but since the figures for Bengal have been dismissed by NUEPA as incomplete, comparison is not possible.

rema.nagarajan@timesgroup.com