<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->However - some of these things are a gain in some ways and a loss in other ways. I have never seen a school maths textbook that uses Kannada (or Hindi) alphabet/numerals to say
(a+b)^2=a^2+2ab =b^2.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In a system where people are unable to even recognise numerals, changing the education system to perform algebra in a local language will be an uphill task because even the teachers will require retraining and the textbooks will require changing.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Dear sir,
With due respect, What you have said is a speculation, and only a speculation, based upon some innocent, but I dare say, wrong assumptions.
If you have not come across, does not mean Mathematics or other sciences are not being taught in Hindi or other Indic languages today. Reality is just to the opposite, ALL the Hindi medium schools in North India, certainly those run by the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh secondary boards teach the mathematics and other subjects in Hindi medium. I know this, since I am a product of that education board, not very long back.
Above equation (samIkaraNa to us) that you mentioned was taught to us and being taught to millions (yes, conciousely writing, millions) of students every year, even today by thousands of school teachers, like this: (à¤+à¤)^2 = à¤à¤^2 + 2à¤à¤ + à¤^2. Do these students learn any less of bIjagaNita than those who learnt the "algebra"? Of course instead of learning Pythagoras theorem, we were taught SridharAcharya Prameya. Did we learn any less of jyAmiti, than the 'Geometry' that our "English-only-please" brothers/sisters of english-medium schools learnt?
(And yes, till class eighth, I had used Devanagari numerals, and all of my family, friends and a vast population I know of are very very very comfortable without arabic numerals)
Please allow me to assure you that there are AMPLE books available, and VERY good quality books, in all the Indic languages, at least upto the secondary education.
Also please allow me to state the fact that, a vast majority of science students that come out of the secondary education are from vernacular medium and NOT from English. I just hope that you are not saying that all of that vernacular educated science student output is a low quality waste.
Again, let me inform you there are several universities, including Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University, which teach sciences in Hindi even today. Just to mention a side fact here, Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, who retired as the Professor and Head of the Physics Department of Allahabad University, had proudly submitted his PhD thesis in Hindi+Sanskrit as a student.
About Technical education (engineering and medicine) - yes in this area, books in Indic languages are lacking in comparision to English, and anyways all the top universities offer only English-medium education. Therefore the students from vernacular medium secondary education, do encounter a bit of challenge when they enter it. However, they do come out just fine, except that their English would not be so well, and they do have natural competitive disadvantage because of suddenly being thrown in a foreign-medium of education. (even more, Vernacular students have a disadvantage in the entrance exams - which for so many reasons are much less fair to them)
Now finally, based upon the first hand experience, I can assure you that as a product of Hindi-medium secondary schooling, while I do still have difficulties in the language of English, I never have had any difficulty in the Mathematics or sciences, and am doing satisfactorily well in my engineering profession. Therefore when I say that English-medium education is NOT the ONLY SINGLE path to economic success to masses, it is not just a theory but from the first hand experience.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I suspect that an attempt to change from this would require a complete retraining of teachers and students.
besides - the dilemma is always "Should one attempt to change the system to use regional languages and change the 30% who are currently getting an education, or should one attempt to include the remaining 70% into the existing system?"
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Your speculation was primarily based upon the wrong assumption, as I pointed earlier, that presently the majority education system for secondary IS already English medium. This is not right. Present majority secondary education system, thakfully, still is in vernacular. Change that is taking place due to variousreasons is, that the present vernacular-majority education is being transformed into English-only education, and NOT the other way round. Please check your facts before drawing conclusions.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the biggest absolute number of English speakers outside the US which would probably make Macaulay squirm because the anglophone media could (if nurtured appropriately by Indian English speakers) be relatively dominated by India. I see great potential in this - because Indian ideas (and yes, Indian narratives too) can be rammed down throats of Western anglophone unbelievers...
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->...English skills can be an opportunity if we are ready to recognize those opportunities.
How about an onslaught of indefatigable and undefeatable anglophone India? That will come anyway as a side effect of what is going on over here. Might as well put it to good use.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What you are proposing is, that, 'If rape is inevitable, at least lie down and enjoy it.' - or - 'let us all wear good clothes, eat, drink and be merry, so what if it comes by selling one kidney or an eye'.
What you dont realize is this. (quoting from a private conversation with Husky, surely he wouldn't mind):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Language is the sound from the soul of any culture. It is the carrier of sanskars, through the generations. Take away the language of the people, that will take away all the sanskars accumulated through the centuries over the generations. Words can be translated, not the sankars. those are dead. gone. lost forever, replaced by other sanskars.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
then also, you said:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It will be good to have the world rushing to figure out Indian English rather than Indians copying firangi accents. In fact that is already happening right now - with BPOs shifting from making their employees speak pretend accents to using neutral Indian accents.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sir, once again you have made a fatal assumption. Voice-based BPOs (known as call centers) are the only segment and relatively a small segment of the BPO industry, where foreign languages - primarily English is required. 75% of the next gen BPO, both by GDP and by size of employment, is DATA and BUSINESS PROCESS BPO - Accounting, IT Support, Product Design, HR, Publishing, Statistics, Payroll, Analytics, all other back office - these huge and up-the-value-chain BPO segments dont require English to be the PRIMARY language of the employee.
Lastly, to quote from the speech of the most venerable Sir Thomas Babington Macaulay himself:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas," ["<b><span style='color:red'>To lose the reason for living, for the sake of staying alive</span></b>"] is a despicable policy both in individuals and in states. In the present case, such a policy would be not only despicable, but absurd.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But in our case, what we are proposing is exactly this.
Finally, I repeat, I sense only the innocent but wrong assumptions, leading to somewhat unreal conclusions in your assertions.
(a+b)^2=a^2+2ab =b^2.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In a system where people are unable to even recognise numerals, changing the education system to perform algebra in a local language will be an uphill task because even the teachers will require retraining and the textbooks will require changing.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Dear sir,
With due respect, What you have said is a speculation, and only a speculation, based upon some innocent, but I dare say, wrong assumptions.
If you have not come across, does not mean Mathematics or other sciences are not being taught in Hindi or other Indic languages today. Reality is just to the opposite, ALL the Hindi medium schools in North India, certainly those run by the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh secondary boards teach the mathematics and other subjects in Hindi medium. I know this, since I am a product of that education board, not very long back.
Above equation (samIkaraNa to us) that you mentioned was taught to us and being taught to millions (yes, conciousely writing, millions) of students every year, even today by thousands of school teachers, like this: (à¤+à¤)^2 = à¤à¤^2 + 2à¤à¤ + à¤^2. Do these students learn any less of bIjagaNita than those who learnt the "algebra"? Of course instead of learning Pythagoras theorem, we were taught SridharAcharya Prameya. Did we learn any less of jyAmiti, than the 'Geometry' that our "English-only-please" brothers/sisters of english-medium schools learnt?
(And yes, till class eighth, I had used Devanagari numerals, and all of my family, friends and a vast population I know of are very very very comfortable without arabic numerals)
Please allow me to assure you that there are AMPLE books available, and VERY good quality books, in all the Indic languages, at least upto the secondary education.
Also please allow me to state the fact that, a vast majority of science students that come out of the secondary education are from vernacular medium and NOT from English. I just hope that you are not saying that all of that vernacular educated science student output is a low quality waste.
Again, let me inform you there are several universities, including Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University, which teach sciences in Hindi even today. Just to mention a side fact here, Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, who retired as the Professor and Head of the Physics Department of Allahabad University, had proudly submitted his PhD thesis in Hindi+Sanskrit as a student.
About Technical education (engineering and medicine) - yes in this area, books in Indic languages are lacking in comparision to English, and anyways all the top universities offer only English-medium education. Therefore the students from vernacular medium secondary education, do encounter a bit of challenge when they enter it. However, they do come out just fine, except that their English would not be so well, and they do have natural competitive disadvantage because of suddenly being thrown in a foreign-medium of education. (even more, Vernacular students have a disadvantage in the entrance exams - which for so many reasons are much less fair to them)
Now finally, based upon the first hand experience, I can assure you that as a product of Hindi-medium secondary schooling, while I do still have difficulties in the language of English, I never have had any difficulty in the Mathematics or sciences, and am doing satisfactorily well in my engineering profession. Therefore when I say that English-medium education is NOT the ONLY SINGLE path to economic success to masses, it is not just a theory but from the first hand experience.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I suspect that an attempt to change from this would require a complete retraining of teachers and students.
besides - the dilemma is always "Should one attempt to change the system to use regional languages and change the 30% who are currently getting an education, or should one attempt to include the remaining 70% into the existing system?"
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Your speculation was primarily based upon the wrong assumption, as I pointed earlier, that presently the majority education system for secondary IS already English medium. This is not right. Present majority secondary education system, thakfully, still is in vernacular. Change that is taking place due to variousreasons is, that the present vernacular-majority education is being transformed into English-only education, and NOT the other way round. Please check your facts before drawing conclusions.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the biggest absolute number of English speakers outside the US which would probably make Macaulay squirm because the anglophone media could (if nurtured appropriately by Indian English speakers) be relatively dominated by India. I see great potential in this - because Indian ideas (and yes, Indian narratives too) can be rammed down throats of Western anglophone unbelievers...
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->...English skills can be an opportunity if we are ready to recognize those opportunities.
How about an onslaught of indefatigable and undefeatable anglophone India? That will come anyway as a side effect of what is going on over here. Might as well put it to good use.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What you are proposing is, that, 'If rape is inevitable, at least lie down and enjoy it.' - or - 'let us all wear good clothes, eat, drink and be merry, so what if it comes by selling one kidney or an eye'.
What you dont realize is this. (quoting from a private conversation with Husky, surely he wouldn't mind):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Language is the sound from the soul of any culture. It is the carrier of sanskars, through the generations. Take away the language of the people, that will take away all the sanskars accumulated through the centuries over the generations. Words can be translated, not the sankars. those are dead. gone. lost forever, replaced by other sanskars.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
then also, you said:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It will be good to have the world rushing to figure out Indian English rather than Indians copying firangi accents. In fact that is already happening right now - with BPOs shifting from making their employees speak pretend accents to using neutral Indian accents.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sir, once again you have made a fatal assumption. Voice-based BPOs (known as call centers) are the only segment and relatively a small segment of the BPO industry, where foreign languages - primarily English is required. 75% of the next gen BPO, both by GDP and by size of employment, is DATA and BUSINESS PROCESS BPO - Accounting, IT Support, Product Design, HR, Publishing, Statistics, Payroll, Analytics, all other back office - these huge and up-the-value-chain BPO segments dont require English to be the PRIMARY language of the employee.
Lastly, to quote from the speech of the most venerable Sir Thomas Babington Macaulay himself:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas," ["<b><span style='color:red'>To lose the reason for living, for the sake of staying alive</span></b>"] is a despicable policy both in individuals and in states. In the present case, such a policy would be not only despicable, but absurd.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But in our case, what we are proposing is exactly this.
Finally, I repeat, I sense only the innocent but wrong assumptions, leading to somewhat unreal conclusions in your assertions.