Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

English, Garima and DPS

Posted : June 26, 2006 at 10:20 pm [IST]

Garima Godara topped CBSE this year with an astonishing 97.6 per cent marks. She took the entrance examination for Delhi Public School, Dwarka, as the school was closest to her village. ‘DPS turned her down. Her results were good, it conceded. But marks aren’t everything, said the school principal to NDTV, and besides, her English was poor, and just didn’t cut the grade.’

The story of Garima Godara stunned me and many questions started disturbing me about our education system and selection process for admission in higher educational institutes. I am sure if the same had been the situation 51 years ago I would not have had my education in the reputed educational institutes that I did. I would have been rejected at the first step itself. It took me down the memory lanes.

I started my regular schooling from class six at Birlapur, a small jute mill township near Kolkata (Calcutta of those days) where my grandfather was a teacher in the primary school. I was neither knowing Bangla, nor English. Even my Hindi must have been loaded with Bhojpuri, my mother tongue. The school was a vernacular media high school. Almost all the teachers except those for Hindi taught in Bangla. I was using Hindi as medium for writing examinations. I picked up working knowledge of Bangla to understand my teachers. By the time I was in class nine, I was the lone Hindi medium student. But I never got in any problem. I started topping the class from class seven and continued doing that all the years I was in the school.

In 1955, I appeared for the school final examination, and also got married. After marriage when we returned to Calcutta, the result was out. I was rather late for admission. I went to Calcutta with my grandfather. We first visited Scottish Church College and then went to St. Xavier’s. In both the places, the college gave us the forms for the admission test. Hesitatingly, we felt like trying our luck in Presidency College before the day end, as we were to return back to Birlapur. On counter, the clerk asked if I had brought my marks sheet. I gave that. He then asked if I had some Rs 28. My grandfather father handed over the admission money. I was thus admitted in the best college of the day. I am sure I would have failed to get entrance in Scottish and St. Xavier, as they would have interviewed me in English. Should I have repentance for not knowing English?

Even with the 2 years of Presidency, I was not proficient in English speaking, neither after 4 years in my next institute of national importance-IIT, Kharagpur. I never faced so big a problem with my English that was poorer than of those educated in English medium school. That was the case with many of my friends who had rural backgrounds. My friend since the first day of IIT, Dr. BB Pandey, the Emirtus professor of civil Engineering at IIT, Kharagpur, will be another example like mine. But we did succeed in life in our profession. It was only in profession, by the time it became essential for presentation and commercial communication I improved my proficiency of English. Why did then a reputed institution such as DPS reject Garima?

Rajesh, who is visiting us from US, was discussing the issue. He says, many of the students from countries all over the world in US are hardly good at English even when they join the job. Language hardly creates any problem. Neither they nor their colleagues are concerned about it. I had similar experience about dealing with Japanese extensively while at my job. The language was never a major issue. We carried out all our works without much problem. Why should then Garima and certainly many like Garima get rejected in admission to these so-called good institutions? Are we not able to shake off our elitist attitude, where the proficiency in speaking English and dressing smartly is everything? It may be necessary for some job descriptions, but not for the majority of it.

I remember one instance from HM days. Once one executive in HRD joined HM as vice-president from Tata Steel. Very soon he convinced the HM management of the day that some 200 and odd engineers were below standard. The reason again was their poor knowledge of English. I tried as boss to convince that the knowledge of spoken English and that smartness was not necessary for the jobs the boys are doing. But I failed. The boys were retrenched. It earned bad names for HM. But I was happy that most of them had got good jobs elsewhere because of their good hand on experience.
Why we in India are so much obstinate?

Another View of Barkha Dutt on Garima Story

- Indra

Category: Employment/Education |