Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Omkar N. Koul
L. Devaki
THE ISSUE
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A diachronic perspective along with the synchronic
view will help to get a better understanding of the educational
language situation. This will show whether the non use of
languages as media for higher or secondary education is a case
of discontinuation or a case of `to be used' situation. The latter
situation involves a developmental notion. This distinction
between the synchronic and diachronic perspectives is essential
because planners and policy makers have to evolve appropriate
strategies facilitating language development and its use. In the
case of discontinuation, the use of language for tertiary
education would depend on other variables like the need for the
continued use of language, the status and importance of
language etc. This work looks at the languages used as media
of instruction from a synchronic as well as diachronic
perspectives.
STATE-WISE COMPARISON
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Hence, the findings between both the surveys cannot be
compared for these regions.
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Kashmiri 1 1 1 0
Malayalam 8 7 5 2
Marathi 7 7 6 5
Oriya 5 3 2 2
Punjabi 4 3 3 3
Sanskrit 2 1 1 1
Sindhi 5 4 3 2
Tamil 10 10 9 5
Telugu 11 11 9 5
Urdu 15 15 12 9
English 32 32 32 32
Number of Languages
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for the Third and the Fifth Surveys separately for each State
and Union Territory and for all the four stages of education.
Synchronic Comparison
A perusal of the above Table 3 shows the following with regard
to the synchronic comparison:
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1) The decrease in the languages used as media of
instruction is systematic only in the States of Assam
and Madhya Pradesh.
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decrease as in Orissa and West Bengal in the Third
Survey and Andaman and Nicobar Island in the Fifth
Survey. In all these cases, There is a decrease in the
Upper Primary stage, followed by increase in the
Secondary stage, and final decrease in the Higher
Secondary stage. In Andhra Pradesh, as per the Third
Survey, the number of languages used as media of
instruction is more at the Upper Primary and Secondary
levels than the Primary stage itself.
Diachronic Comparison
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3) There is an increase at the Primary level and decrease at
the Higher Secondary stage in Rajasthan.
The third issue addressed here is about the languages that are
used as media of instruction at the Higher Secondary level in
each State and Union Territory. This question also involves a
sub question on what languages have been added or deleted at
the Higher stages of education. States and Union Territories
can be divided into four groups based on the number of
languages used as media of instruction for Higher Secondary
education in the Fifth Survey. These groups almost replicate the
various versions of the Three Language Formula. They are as
given below:
Eight States and two Union territories fall in this group. These
are the States of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Jammu and
Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal
and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and
Delhi.
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A synchronic comparison shows the use of four
languages as media for imparting higher education. These are
the Regional languages of the State/Union Territory, English
and Hindi. In addition, the language of the largest minority
group living in the State, which sometimes has the second
official language status, is used as the medium of instruction.
For instance, Urdu in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and
Bihar, Bengali in Assam, Sindhi in Gujarat and Nepali in West
Bengal. In certain States the language(s) of contiguous State(s)
with whom the State shares its geographical border is also used
as educational media. The use of Tamil and Marathi as media
of instruction in Karnataka, Kannada in Maharashtra, Marathi
in Gujarat, and Malayalam in Tamil Nadu exemplify such
situation.
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The States / Union Territories which come in this category are
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Tripura,
Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Kerala and Pondicherry
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Pradesh, and Lakshadweep. The two languages are : Hindi
(which plays the role of the regional language), and English. In
Lakshadweep, the regional language is Malayalam.
CONCLUSIONS
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The trends presented above highlight the complexity in the
phenomenon of medium of instruction across the four levels of
education.
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quadri-medial at the Higher Secondary level of education. The
regional languages are growing stronger and are being used
widely for tertiary educational stages.
REFERENCES
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