British Council: English Is Important But Not At The Cost Of Mother Tongue

The British Council is running "The Language of Education in Multilingual India: Exploring Effects on Reading and Mathematics" along with the University of Cambridge in government schools all across Delhi so as to explore and expand multilingual learning and cognitive abilities of the students. The Council strongly believes that English is important considering the global situation and present scenario but not at the cost of your mother tongue, said Alan Gemmell, British Council India Director.  He added that English has highest number of loan words from Indian languages like Sanskrit and it is natural that it holds importance in India now. As we have dwelled in the 21st century, it has become one of the 'operating system language across the world'.

The project started in 2016 so as to find out if children whose languages differ at home and school are having low learning outcomes or any other significant development issues. The research project will also shed light on multilingualism in India and the role mother tongue plays in early years of education. The project is also run in Hyderabad and Patna. The reason for the choice of cities is solely based on presence of collaborators of British council in the city.

The findings would be reported by 2020 and till now, 1000 children have participated. There are some challenges that the children face like not being able to adapt to the language skills or children in government schools who don't have any exposure to written language.

By: Neha Maheshwari

Content: https://www.ndtv.com/education/british-council-english-important-but-not-at-cost-of-mother-tongue-1894303?publisher=newsstand