Government’s decision to introduce English as medium of instruction in schools is contradictory to the NEP: Samujjal Bhattacharya

The proposal by the state government to teach science and math in English medium instead of Assamese or other vernacular languages has been opposed by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), All Bodo Students' Union, Asam Sahitya Sabha, and Bodo Sahitya Sabha.

On Thursday, representatives of all these key groups held a discussion with state’s education minister Ranoj Pegu at Dispur and reiterated their decision.

While the organisations continued to criticise the state government's move as rash and unscientific, they emphasised the importance of preserving Assamese culture and language. "The meeting was not successful. We have pushed for the protection of our mother tongue at all costs while keeping the competitive environment in mind,” said Samujjal Bhattacharjya, chief adviser for AASU while additionally adding, "The state government's decision is contradictory while the National Education Policy 2020 is based on promoting education in mother tongue and the Prime Minister even stated that even engineering and medical science should be taught in the vernacular languages.”

Speaking to India Today NE, AASU Chief Advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said, “We are ultimately demanding that English should be taught well and right from the pre-primary classes. Additionally importance should be also given towards teaching of Assamese language so that students can read and write their mother tongue properly. Unfortunately, the government couldn’t answer to this demand. The government is saying that English will be taught in the schools in parallel to the Assamese language which is not possible.”

“The government should instead focus on providing proper infrastructure in schools such as fans, desks, chairs, laboratories so that parents feel happy in sending their wards to such government schools. Students will only take interest in going to schools if they receive all the proper infrastructures,” added Samujjal Bhattacharya.

Speaking about the Thursday meeting which was attended by several organisations, with regards to the Education Policy, state education minister Dr. Ranoj Pegu called it a fruitful discussion and added, "We all agreed that learning the English language at a young age is crucial for the students in today's competitive world. The conversation was in-depth, and we will meet again in a month to have a thorough discussion on the impending demands of the organisations.”

The Assam cabinet had approved earlier that both mathematics and science will be taught in English from Class 3 to Class 12 in all government schools, as opposed to the current practise of teaching them in Assamese, Bodo, or Bengali.

According to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assamese and other languages would not suffer from the adoption of English as a language of instruction for science and math because students will continue to study them as subjects.