Eight years ago, Sarada Sanskrit High School in Ramechhap, the only Sanskrit school in the district, had two students in grade I, and one in grade II. Most parents sent their children to English medium schools.
The teachers particularly had a hard time surviving in a school without students. Then the school authority switched the medium of instruction (MOI) from Nepali to English from grade one. Now, the MOI is English up to grade VIII. [break]
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Since then, the school authority encountered challenges in terms of trained teachers, availability of textbooks, and adequate resources. “English MOI attracts students, but it is very tough to find proficient teachers to teach in English,” the head teacher reported to me. On the other hand, they do not receive the textbooks, three times the price of Nepali medium ones, in time from Janak Shiksha Samagri Kendra.
The head teacher further said, “the government encourages English, but we do not receive training or other assistance in it.” Many community schools in Kathmandu Valley and outside have already shifted their MOI to English, and the trend is mounting. Media analyses of this issue seem to be fragmentary in relation to the ideological and practical grounds of the practice in Nepal.
In teaching, MOI is a language used to teach the language itself, or other educational content. The MOI may or may not be the official language of the country. When the Ministry of education revised the Education Act in 2008, it concluded that the MOI for school education shall be Nepali, English or both languages. At the same time, it states that primary education can be provided in mother tongue.
Community schools are shifting their MOI to English primarily to increase the number of students and to compete with private English medium schools. Parents want their children to develop better English competence for better careers and economic opportunities. Interestingly, such schools and parents assume that English will provide quality education. Children seem to be excited about the shift.
They are greatly influenced by English medium schools nearby, mass media and technology, and foreign culture. All these elements give them positive motivational orientation towards learning English language.
Significant changes have occurred with this shift. For instance, students are performing better in English subject, which had been a major obstacle in SLC for many students from Nepali medium schools. Students’ motivation for learning other subjects seems to have increased. Significant improvement in reading and writing in English has been observed. Further, students are moderately better in mathematics and science than previous years. Many principals and head teachers claim that apart from students’ achievement in examination, English has offered them more access to information and knowledge.
However, lack of trained teachers to teach in English is a key challenge. Teachers who were teaching in Nepali do not receive any formal training to improve their English language proficiency. The results can be observed in classrooms. Such teachers use formulaic English which often impart wrong information. Schools have limited resources to cope with the situation. Due to lack of knowledge of English language teaching pedagogy, the communication in classroom confuses learners about various concepts. Sometimes students do not understand the questions in the exam. There is a huge gap between expected outcomes and practices on the ground.
In this regard, policymakers and practitioners need to be clear about what our goal is, whether to deliver all kinds of educational content, or to deliver English language. If our goal is to deliver the contents of all subjects, the language that has proved effective needs to be used. That language might be Nepali, English, or some other local language.
A few linguists and ELT professionals claim that we need to teach compulsory English effectively from grade one to 12. They further raise the question: When we are struggling hard to teach English as a compulsory subject from grade one, how can we expect effective teaching and learning of other subjects in English? On the other hand, English has become a selling point in the market and signifies quality of education. English as a global language definitely matters in terms of its role as a lingua franca, but correlating English with quality education is not correct.
Many scholars claim that English has no correlation with high passing rates of students from private English medium schools. It is because of the sound management of those institutions and the effort of teachers that more students pass from these schools. Imitation of MOI of these schools only will not work in community schools.
A few years ago, a famous applied linguist Alan Davies, who led the first ELT Survey in Nepal in 1983-1984, stated that the decisions regarding language education in Nepal are guided by sentimental role rather than instrumental. The sentimental role emphasizes its importance in maintaining group traditions and culture, and in demonstrating differentiation from other groups. The instrumental role concerns the value of language learning for job and other economic prospects.
But the scenario is fast changing; people are attracted towards English for instrumental purposes nowadays, even though sentimental role is dominant at policy formulation level. In Nepal, a more romantic and emotional view about English seems to be prevalent.
It is believed to be the key to modernization, even though the state has ignored on-the-ground realities about the language. English language related policies and practices have been implemented without a clearly enunciated rationale, and without a detailed consideration of the costs and benefits. The impact of globalization and market oriented economic ideology are apparent in the decisions of shifting MOI from Nepali to English and lowering English education to early grades.
It is not wise to shift MOI from Nepali to English without enough preparation and planning. As an ELT practitioner, I do not argue for English-only in schools. In Sarada Sanskrit High School, students study social studies, moral education in Nepali, mathematics and science in English, and two courses in Sanskrit. Bilingual or multilingual model of MOI in schools can be adopted in different courses and levels in the multilingual context of Nepal. In this case, English may be used as the MOI for parts, but not all of schooling.
The author is a teaching assistant in Tribhuvan University
khati_ashok@yahoo.com
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