English cuts schools’ regional tongues

More children in Ahmedabad are learning English, the language of bright careers in a globalised world, but the growing appeal of English-medium institutions has obliterated around 85 primary schools that used regional languages.

Recently, the Municipal School Board, which runs several primary schools in the city where regional languages such as Urdu, Marathi, Sindhi and Tamil are the medium of instruction, has decided to close five schools.

The board has already closed down 47 Gujarati, 13 Urdu, 7 Hindi, 6 Sindhi, 5 Marathi, 1 Telugu and 1 Malayalam-medium primary school in the last five years because of a decline in student numbers.

As for the recently closed schools, three are Marathi-medium schools and two are Sindhi-medium schools. The closed schools are Marathi School No 1 in Purushottamnagar, Marathi School No 2 in Meghaninagar, Marathi School No 3 in Bapunagar, Sindhi School No 10 in Kubernagar and Sindhi Main School in Sardarnagar.

These schools will continue to exist as an 'attached class' - attached to the nearest municipal school - so that their remaining students can complete their primary school education.

However, these five regional language schools are not the only ones to have surrendered before the growing popularity of English-medium schools in the city.

The municipal board's primary school that taught in Malayalam and Telugu closed for good this year. It won't exist even as an 'attached class'. The school had only seven students - four in Telugu and three in Malayalam.

This year, however, not a single new student enrolled in the school to study in these languages. Its only teacher, who used to teach both Telugu and Malayalam, has been shifted to a Gujarati-medium school.  Non-Gujarati parents who can afford the high fees of private schools prefer English as the medium of instruction for their children. Only a few, who wish to return to their respective home states at a future date, want their children to be educated in their mother tongue.

Surekha Rathor, principal-in-charge of Bhadra Marathi School, said one section of the non-Gujarati population of the city wants its children to be educated in Gujarati-medium schools. “This group intends to settle in Gujarat,” Rathore said. She further said that one reason for parent's preference for English-medium schools is the lack of opportunities for higher education in the medium of regional languages.

“There are very few high schools in the city that use regional languages such as Sindhi, Marathi or Tamil as the medium of instruction,” Rathore said. “Even at the university level, students from regional language schools face problems.”

Recalling the changing fortunes of the Asarwa Marathi School No 2, its principal-in-charge, Kamala Bhagyapadi, said there was a time when the school had around 60 students in each class.

"This has now come down to just 150 in the entire primary school," Bhagyapadi said. "When Ahmedabad was known for its textile industry, there was a large Marathi and Tamil population in Asarwa and Naroda Road areas. Their numbers has dwindled now as most of them left after the textile mills closed."

For example, the Asarwa Tamil School has only one teacher — A Indra — who has to teach 53 students in Std 1 to Std 7. She also has to do the school's office work as she is also its principal-in-charge.

"Five years back, the school had more than 100 students and four teachers. Now I have to teach 53 students alone." The Tamil population in the area has also dwindled as there are only 100-odd families left in the Asarwa area.