Bird creates flutter in family, drives a child into English-medium school

Hyderabad : Raju, who runs a tea stall in Sainadhapuram of Hyderabad is forced to admit his 4-year-old son Sai Saran into a neighbourhood private English medium school.

Speaking to The Hans India, he expressed how an incident that turned into a tussle for three months between him and his wife had forced him to beg the school to admit his ward into LKG. “The school initially denied admission as the child has not completed five years. However, after a recommendation from a local politician and paying Rs 10,000 donation, my child was admitted into LKG,” he said.

Hailing from Palasa's rural village in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, he migrated for livelihood to Hyderabad. After an initial stint of working as a housekeeper in an apartment, Raju, after his marriage brought his wife to the city so that she too could help him. “I studied up to Class VIII and my wife completed Class X. We both studied in Telugu medium," he said.

Further, his wife started home tutoring the child from the age of three years. By the time their child turned four, she wanted Sai Saran to be prepared to be admitted into an English medium school like other children in the neighbourhood. But what played havoc in their lives was the ‘Paala Pitta’ (blue jay), the State bird of Telangana. “For months, my wife taught that ‘Paala Pitta’ in English as ‘Milk bird’ to my son. The reason being, in English, the Telugu words ‘Paalu’ means ‘milk’ and ‘pitta’ means ‘bird’,” Raju said.

However, she was ashamed when a private teacher told her what she was teaching to her son was wrong. Raju explained how his wife felt sorry about her lack of knowledge in English. She picked up a fight with Raju, and relented only when she got the child admitted to an English medium school.

Not knowing English is what became a major factor for his wife to suffer from low self-esteem. "My wife helped me a lot in setting up the shop and also takes care of its activities when I go on some other work. I don't want her to feel low," says Raju.

Then, is it that children who have studied all along till Class X and beyond in English face similar problems to that of the ‘Paala Pitta’?

Clarifying this, a faculty member of the department of Psychology and Parapsychology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam said, “I cannot comment on the official policies of the state governments of either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. However, over-emphasis on teaching in English runs the risk of cognitive dissonance in children. Because the environment either at home or around they are growing up gives them one kind of cognitive built-up. If the instruction and learning inputs in the classroom provide a different cognitive input, then this dichotomy will continue to impact their originality and creativity. However, children have abilities to learn multiple languages till they reach about seven years of age. English can be taught alongside Telugu, but not at the cost of Telugu,” he adds.

Moreover, English is not a medium. It is a medium of several language mediums. For example, the word English is not an English word, it is a corrupt word having Germanic roots. Similarly, the word ‘Mind’ comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Manas’ via Latin into English. Likewise, many words and the entire corpus of literature of various subjects come along with words like ‘Physics’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Algebra’, ‘mother’, ‘matrix’ and hundreds of such words taught as English in fact comes from different language stocks. However, those studied in English medium are not even aware of it. Not knowing the fundamental concepts and their cognitive implications and impact would definitely be a serious issue before parading a public policy by the governments.

Against this backdrop, the National Education Policy-2020 policy was recommended by the NEP-2020 Committee headed by former ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan, who emphasised that early school education for children should be imparted in their mother tongue.