Rajasthan’s celebrated English school revolution has left Deepanshi Batham with no friends. Her English-speaking classmates shun her, and she finds it difficult to make inroads into their close-knit circles. “They don’t talk to me properly. They belittle me, flaunt their money in front of me, and always use English words I don’t understand,” she says, breaking into a sob.
The Class IX student can no longer drum up the enthusiasm to get out of bed every morning to go to school. But it wasn’t always like this for Deepanshi, who has been going to the government school in Dhani Kumawatan, part of Sanganer city in Jaipur, since the second grade. Her world turned topsy turvy in 2019, when the Rajasthan government changed the medium of instruction in many state-run schools from Hindi to English.
In Deepanshi’s school, which was renamed Mahatma Gandhi English School, the government’s decision resulted in a mass migration. More than 90 per cent of students transferred to other government schools where Hindi was still the medium of instruction, leaving her friendless. “All my friends took their transfer certificates and left the school, because they didn’t want to continue learning in English,” she said. The new enrollees are former private school students whose parents —due to the pandemic— could no longer afford to pay the fees but wanted their children to continue studying in English.
Of the 66,223 government schools in Rajasthan, 1,193 schools have been sanctioned as Mahatma Gandhi English schools—137 in villages, 302 in cities and 755 in big villages with a population of more than 5,000.
The policy is considered to be a success. According to education officials, there’s a waitlist of 20-25 students for every seat in a Mahatma Gandhi School. But teachers and principals have expressed concerns that the policy is not benefitting students who need it the most–those who cannot afford a private school education.
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Jump in school transfers
The Mahatma Gandhi School in Dhani Kumawatan, for instance, runs on charity and donation drives. But the students who have migrated from private schools are relatively well to do, while those who chose to remain behind find themselves alienated. “The government should’ve actually kept a check on the school. Relatively rich students have occupied seats here, because after lockdown parents couldn’t afford private school fees, so sent their students to government schools,” a teacher at the school said.
The schools haven’t been functioning properly since the policy was introduced in 2019. Some schools like Deepanshi’s saw a flurry of transfers. “When a school is converted into a Mahatma Gandhi school, we give its students a choice to either continue in the school or we ensure they’re shifted to a nearby Hindi-medium school,” a bureaucrat with the state education department told ThePrint. The Rajasthan government has yet to release data on the number of Transfer Certificates (TCs) it has issued in Mahatma Gandhi schools since 2019.
Mass ‘migration’ of students has been reported in schools across Rajasthan, claims Bhawani Shankar, head of Rajasthan Teachers’ Association, Shekhawat. “This policy is unfortunately making way for richer students to take the place of poor students.”
The government, though, says it is aware of the challenges that students are facing and has developed policies to smoothen the process. “We’re giving Hindi students intensive care in schools and extra classes (within school hours) to clear their doubts,” said Pawan Kumar Goyal, additional chief secretary, Rajasthan Education Department. The Rajasthan education department is reportedly designing workbooks for students to help them with basic concepts and putting together offline and online plans for teachers.
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The Hindi to English switch
The whole exercise has been daunting for children as well. Spellings are simply baffling, the grammar is complex, the pronunciations are inconsistent, and then there’s Mathematics. Though numbers follow the same rules in any language, students are finding it challenging when the medium of instruction is English.
“I am unable to keep up with mathematics. My grades in the subject have fallen tremendously. If I was still studying in Hindi, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Kushal Sambariya, a Class X student in of Mahatma Gandhi English School, Dhani Kumawatan
Students are unhappy to see their grades drop. It’s perhaps one of the reasons why so many children in Deepanshi’s school opted for transfer certificates. “I have become a grade C student from a grade A student,” said Deepanshi.
For high school students, the struggle is real—and worrying. In a competitive and performance-driven education system, every mark counts. “The environment at home also depends on how quickly students pick up [concepts], so responses in class are mixed. But senior students struggle way more than junior ones. The government should have introduced this policy in phases, beginning with Classes I-V and gradually increasing it to upper,” said a teacher who didn’t wish to be named.
When Dhani Kumawatan switched to English, new teachers were appointed. This was done at every Mahatma Gandhi English School. Teachers are appointed after a rigorous process, claim education officers.
“Teachers of classes I-X are interviewed by an education officer at the district level, while class XI and XII teachers are interviewed by a joint director to get deputed to a Mahatma Gandhi English School,” said Goyal.
To bridge the gap and improve the quality of instruction, the education department is conducting workshops for English teachers, Goyal added. Retired teachers from the private sector are also being hired on a contract basis to make up the dearth of English-speaking teachers.
The process is a learning experience for teachers as well, some of whom are proactively taking steps to improve their fluency. “I did my Masters of Arts in English language only. So, it’s not alien to me. I am also training myself to speak better English via YouTube,” said a Class IX social sciences teacher from a Mahatma Gandhi English School in Dhani Kumawatan.
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Breaking cultural barriers
Though language barriers remain, the cultural fabric of schools is slowly changing in the classroom and on the playground. At Dhani Kumawatan, teenage students are using their language skills to explore popular culture. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift rub shoulders with Badshah and AP Dhillon on their playlists. And while animated series Chota Bheem is popular among students in lower classes, those in senior school say that they have started watching English films, with subtitles as opposed to watching dubbed versions.
It has opened a whole new world for them. Many say that listening to spoken English, be it Facebook clips or television shows, helps them understand the nuance of the language. Others insist that if it weren’t for an English education, they wouldn’t have started exploring ‘Western popular culture’.
“Earlier, I used to watch films dubbed in Hindi. But now, I watch my favourite Marvel movies in English only,” said Aditya, a Class VIII student, who came from a private school.
On the other hand, students who remained behind are still trying to make sense of these changes. ThePrint visited all the classes from VIII-X in Dhani Kumawatan and found only about 2-3 children in every class who have been students of the schools since the very beginning and continue to be there.
This has led to a ‘Ganga-Jamuna’ or Hindi-English divide in the school. “It’s not like the English students bully us. They help us out if we need anything, but they’re not our friends. This is what happens,” said Anshu Maurya, a class XI student.
There’s little common ground for them to bond. Aditya, another student, insists that students don’t deliberately “other” Hindi medium students, but says it’s something that just happens.
He’s quick to add that he’s happier with the quality of education in the state-run school. “It’s 10 times better than my previous one. Here my grievances are heard properly, and my doubts are cleared patiently. Teachers in my previous schools never spoke to us properly,” said Aditya.
Therein lies the problem. The government school is no longer catering to the very students it was set up to help, those from poor sections of society. And the few who have remained behind want to leave. “I don’t want to study here any longer, you take me back to Hindi school, where I can have friends again,” said Deepanshi.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)