Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

enders them all the more urgently needed. Nonetheless, the NCERT example
from India shows that professional engagement with curriculum designing can,
to a certain extent, contribute to the sustainability of reforms despite a far from
propitious political backdrop.
Language: As a School Subject and Medium of Instruction
Teaching of language at school, especially at primary level, constitutes the most
complex area of education policy making across South Asia. This complexity
arises from three distinct factors: the multilingual character of society; the
impact of colonial rule; and the limited institutional capacity of the system
for managing reform. Country reports commissioned for this study testify to
problems arising from the interaction of these
factors. While the multilingual nature of society is
acknowledged as the basis of public policy across
most of the region, official documents maintain
silence on the widespread use of English as the
medium of instruction in private schools catering
to social elites. Formal public policy in all countries
of the region stresses the importance of using the
child’s mother tongue as the medium of learning
at the primary stage. For example, Nepal’s official
policy states that the basic aim of educating children
is ‘to develop their linguistic skills over time in their
mother tongue, as well as in Nepali and in English
and to use those skills for their academic, social and
economic advancement and for building a socially
and economically vibrant society’ (SSDP, 2016, p. 42).
While the multilingual
nature of society
is acknowledged
as the basis of
public policy across
most of the region,
official documents
maintain silence on
the widespread use
of English as the
medium of instruction
in private schools
catering to social elites
Only Bhutan has departed from this conventional wisdom and has made English
the medium of instruction for all children across different subjects. 79 In all other
countries of the region, English is taught as a distinct subject in government
schools, from Grade 3 onwards in most cases (see Appendix III). In India, it has
been introduced from Grade 1 in many states, apparently in an attempt to bridge
the gap between government and private schools, but with no discernible effect
on the rapid growth in popularity of private schools. The Indian 3-language
formula has, over the last few decades, attracted other countries in the region
as a means of promoting national integration. However, the data received from
different countries indicate that the regional language and English remain the
two main components of the school timetable in elementary classes.
Bangladesh is the only country in the region with a single dominant language —
language-based identity having been at the core of the popular movement that
led to the formation of Bangladesh as an independent nation-state (Hamid and
79 This policy was introduced in the 1960s under the third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, who
wanted the country to be able to ‘communicate with the rest of the world’ (Bhutan, 2014).
Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st Century:
The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia
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