[MLE] NCERT study ; "States realize English is what people want"

Dear Multilingual Education friends,

As a follow up on the NCERT study National Study on Ten Year School Curriculum Implementation the Times of India published this week an article titled States realize English is what people want. A few quotes
It's not just parents across India who are confused about the time and importance to be given to education in English and the vernacular; the latest data from NCERT reveals our education establishment is just as perplexed, with very little uniformity in the way regional languages are treated.

Almost 30% states devote [only] six to seven periods a week in Class V for teaching the local language, the study says.

English seems to be scoring. Introduced towards the middle of elementary school, it is now offered at the Class I level in 26 states, making it clear that most states have realized that that is what people want.

"While they (parents) may know they are abandoning their heritage by putting their children early into English-medium private schools, they are sanguine about this, choosing to survive in the present milieu over being the reluctant custodians of local languages that have given them precious little in terms of livelihood in return for loyalty."
The articles also points out that there is a huge difference between the states on this issue. What will be the long term effects of these differences will be interesting to study.

Regards,

Karsten
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Karsten van Riezen
Education
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SIL International, South Asia Group
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