Quality suffers, English still 'foreign' for Gujarat students

“Friends, our dear sister
is departing for foreign
in two three days,
and we are meeting today
to wish her bon voyage,”

The lines, written by Indo-Anglian poet Nissim Ezekiel in the poem ‘Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS’, decades ago throws open the clichés that plague English in our country even today.

And Gujarat is no exception. Is English still a foreign language to the country? Why is it that students, despite being trained in the use of the language, continue to falter?

Recently, Gujarati boy Pranav Mistry- alumnus of Nirma University and currently head of Think Tank team of Samsung Research America that designed the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch, faced criticism for his heavily accented English. This has once again raised the issue of quality of English teaching in institutes and colleges in the state.

Ironically, students score well in the English language exams. For instance, only 12% students of first semester of bachelor of engineering at Gujarat Technological University (GTU) failed to clear English language subject, known as communication skills. This is the university that churns out maximum engineers every year.

Scoring well in English language subjects seems to be common-place even at other universities in city like Nirma University, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communications (DAIICT) and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (Cept) University.

If the marks in English theory are anything to go by, communicating in the language should not be very difficult for the students. However, a common complaint that recruiters have is lack of communication skills among the students, especially in English. 

“At Nirma University, students are taught not just communicative English but also report writing and critical thinking apart from foreign language course. Despite this, we have received complaints from recruiters highlighting lack of communication skills among students, especially when it comes to non-technical communication. Even if knowledge of English language improves in students, be they from Gujarat or other states, proficiency continues to be a problem,” said Dr Ketan Kotecha, director of Institute of Technology at Nirma University.

Besides poor English language teaching in schools, he blamed the diminishing reading habits of students apart from obsession with social media and smart phones for the sorry state of affairs.

Though not wanting to tag Gujarat students as being poor in English, director of DAIICT SC Sahasrabudhe said that “Even if they speak English, it would have the flavour of Gujarati or their mother tongue. The broken English often acts as a hurdle for them as a professional. At our institute, there are three faculties who guide students in the language. When students come to me, I advise them to listen to English news for at least half-an-hour daily,” he said.

Many experts feel that English being the third language for children in Gujarat, it is not easy for them to pick up the language all of a sudden in college.

Principal of HL Commerce College Mona Kelsikar said that the problem could partially be attributed to classroom education. “Even when students have taken admission in English medium schools, there is hardly any interaction in English in the classroom. It (the interaction) is often in Gujarati or Hindi. Students don’t talk much in English and hence the problem in fluency,” she said.

Dr Anup Singh, director general at the Nirma University, feels that it is not just the students from Gujarat who lack good English communication skills. “I don’t think that it is a problem specific to a state. Every state and institution faces it. The moot point is how to develop good communication skills. As an institution, we are committed to honing this competency among our students,” he added.