Human Development in India - NCAER

86 human development in indiaBox 6.3Growing English Medium EnrolmentAlthough most Indian schools have alwaystaught English as an additional language,English as a medium of instruction generatesconsiderable passion. Following independence,there was considerable emphasis onteaching in the mother tongue. Even upperclassparents who could afford to send theirchildren to private schools, where Englishwas the medium of instruction, often chosevernacular medium schools. However, in recentyears, the number of English mediumschools has grown. At an all India level, 10per cent children aged 6–14 are inEnglish medium schools. In some states,however, the proportion is much greater.Nearly 64 per cent of children in theNorth-East attend English medium schools,followed by 27 per cent in Jammu and Kashmirand 23 per cent in Kerala. The lowestenrolment in English medium schools is inRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Assam, Orissa, and Gujarat, where no morethan 5 per cent of children are in Englishmedium schools. English medium enrolmentis the most prevalent in metropolitan areas(32 per cent), among families with a collegegraduate (32 per cent), and among the topincome quintile (25 per cent).Source: IHDS 2004–5 data.English Medium Enrolment by Statethat not all of the effects of social background can be reducedto poverty or low parental education. Children from Dalit,Adivasi, and Muslim families, and to a lesser extent thosefrom OBCs, face unique disadvantages. Much of the policyfocus has been directed at positive discrimination via reservationsin college admissions, but we find that this is too littleand too late in students’ educational careers. Many disadvantagesbegin as early as primary school.Second, previous sections noted the rapid privatizationof education, both through increased enrolment inprivate schools and through reliance on private tuition.Parental decisions to send children to private schools seemunderstandable given that even among the poorest familiesor those with very low education levels, children in privateschools have higher reading and arithmetic skills than thosein government schools. However, this rapid privatizationis also associated with the flight of middle-class familiesfrom government schools, possibly leading to the furtherdeterioration of these schools and greater inequality betweengovernment and private school students. The potential forstemming this tide in urban areas seems to be very low. Inrural areas, however, private school systems are not verywell developed, and increased attention to school quality ingovernment schools may succeed in bridging an incipientdivide.Third, while school enrolment has grown rapidly andforms a cause for jubilation, the poor quality of schoolingremains a major cause for concern. That 46 per cent of8–11 year old children cannot read a simple three-sentenceparagraph does not augur well for the future of the civic