"Good morning"
"Good morning, sir!"
"So all of you know what a Group Discussion is and what you have to do, right?"
"Yes, sir!"
"OK. Your topic is The Introduction of Tamil as a Medium for Education in Engineering. Start thinking now. I'll be back in a minute."
We were given a minute of brainstorming, it being the procedure. Quite frankly, this was the first time I took this topic seriously. I had heard about such a proposal earlier through news and other media, but had always found the idea absurd and had never thought that it would ever become reality. But here it was. This complex, bizarre and absurd issue was on its route to reality.
Firstly, what does 'Introduction of Tamil as a Medium for Education in Engineering' mean? It means henceforth all engineering textbooks will have tamil copies, the medium of learning and presenting(exams) engineering concepts would be in tamil too, even the lectures would be in tamil. Not that there will be no engineering in english, but there will also be a separate tamil curriculum. This brings a scary thought - disregard leading to the denial of other languages, mainly our national language.
The main arguement supporting this scheme was that when education is provided in the individual's mother tongue it is always easier for the student to understand and reproduce the concepts. But how far?
The world is on a scientific hustle and India on its race to development. In this scenario, could a student who knows only 1 language that too a language that is limited to one part of one country compete with a world of experts? Is knowledge limited to understanding the concepts? In my opinion, knowledge is only partly knowing and mostly the ability to communicate this knowledge to others. Communication is the backbone of knowledge. It would be impossible, even for the smartest mind in the world, to actually acquire knowledge when it is not communicated to the individual in a proper manner. So such a move not only breaks down the backbone of knowledge and education, it also makes the student automatically incapable of pursuing his/her career outside the borders of tamil.
Engineering is an immensely vast field with infinitely many innovations occuring every single day. Engineering itself has many branches and these streams are further divided into sub-streams. There are innumerous experts in various engineering streams and sub-streams scattered around the globe. Most write and publish technical books which, eventually, find their place in our libraries as referrance materials and textbooks. It is humanly impossible to literally translate all these books into a completely different language. Thus the student is at loss since he/she would have access only to a limited number of books. This itself limits the scope of an ever evolving field for the student.
Let us consider a hypothetical situation in which all the books are literally translated to tamil. Tamil is an old language. A minimum of 4000yrs old. Translating something into another language does not mean writing the same word with the same sounds using a different script. Translation in this context means to create meaningful sentances using equivalent words without changing the actual meaning if the sentance. So will tamil have the suitable words that describe the present engineering concepts properly? India had undergone a lot of changes in the past 1000yrs. Invasions and influences of not only domestic but also foreign cultures and languages has affected literally all societies of all parts of the nation. This blend has now become the foundation for our unity and tolerence. Similar changes have occured with tamil too, since in reality, in the society pure tamil is not spoken. Colloquial tamil is enormously corrupted by these influences. But the translation would require pure tamil. So now the student will have to learn tamil all new. The British introduced the english medium of education in India. Now, after nearly 300yrs, the people are starting to get accustomed to english as a medium for communication and have started to understand its importance in the world. Under such circumstances, is it necessary to dig out an old language? I am not against the conservation of tamil. It is one of the most ancient languages in India and is an asset to the country. Yet, 'conservation' does not entirely justify its inclusion in engineering.
A language, even if it is only a tool for communication, must be respected for its existance and for enabling us to communicate. India is a country of hundreds of languages and dialects, all of which must be respected equally. But when in one part of the country, the importance for one particular language is elevated, it automatically reduces the importance for other languages. This wouldn't cause much unrest if the suppresed language is not a very popular one in that area. But in this case the languages which would be suppressed would be English and Hindi - the most widely spoken languages in the country. This would definitely setoff unrest, not only within TN but in other states as well. The states will start competing about how each state chucks out other languages and ultimately the unity prevailing in the nation will breakdown. This would reduce the linguistic tolerance among the citizens and will poison young minds with the venom of linguism.
Furthermore, this move will invoulantarily bring disregard of other languages like english and hindi. Even if it is taught as a language, only a few might take these languages seriously, and hence only those handful would get at least a chance to compete. TN or atleast Chennai is not a place where only tamilians live. It is a metropolitan city with thousands pouring in by the day. In the midst of such variety of cultures, introducing an additional tamil medium apart from the existing english medium will create a bias in the society leading to the collapse of harmony.
An engineering degree is not limited to the time the student spends at college. It is more concerned with the future of the engineer. Afterall, future is also an important aspect of education. The moment a student steps out of the college his future is forked into higher education and career. When a student studies in tamil medium, as mentioned above, only a handful of students out of thousands will have english skills and it will be only these students who would be able to step outside Tamil Nadu. Today, under the english medium,engineering students form colleges in TN are able to go not only to other parts of the country but are also capable of going to foreign countries for higher studies. But an average tamil medium student will be confined to TN for any kind of higher studies due to his lack of skills. Even across the TN border atleast hindi ( which is our national language) is needed. As for career, the student will again be stuck inside TN and could go nowhere else in pursuit of his dreams and goals. It would be like a tamil medium student is constrained inside an invisible cage, losing his/her fundamental right to freedom. Even if one such engineer manages to find a job outside TN, he/she might not gain acceptance in the other society simply because the society they come from is biased.
Moreover, not knowing a language spoken fluently by many others automatically creates an infriority complex in an individual. The employee would feel tounge tied and the others would simply feel irritated to have such an individual amongst them. In the hasty rush for advancement, no one would have the time or patience to help this individual. This will only push that particular employee more towards depression.
Considering the same hypothesis mentioned above, the engineering graduate from tamil medium not only has limited knowledge but is also trapped inside TN for his career. As the number of tamil medium engineering graduates increases, most employers will have two basic options - either to appoint any wise graduate, irrespective of his medium of learning or to give priority to tamil medium graduates as both the employer and employee are in TN. The former would give rise to the old problem of unemployment, which after so many years the government has been able to control, because, every year new batches of tamil medium graduates will be ready for employment. When under the english medium, the graduate can always try another city of state if he/she is not lucky in one. But when the student has been educated in tamil medium, he/she will be incapable of not only trying their luck in other parts of the country, but if they are not at par with the english medium students in knowledge, will also be incapable of getting employed. Again since their education itself is very limited, only a handful might be able to compete with the english medium students. The result of the latter case is simple - lag in technological advancements due to lack adequate exposure. Here only the case of TN is discussed, but this issue and discussion applies, of course, for all states.
"OK! Now you can start."
"Introduction of Tamil as a medium for education in Engineering. What it means is..."
