From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Fourth Tamil articles in ACT - Sankarapandi
Date: 27 Jan 1993 17:06:19 -0600
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Newsgroups: alt.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian
From: ssankara@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Sornam Sankara)
Subject: Naangaam Tamil
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1992 04:43:28 GMT

There are many questions raised like, what is the need for Naangaam Tamil, why
not continue English for education etc.  As I have already discussed, the
necessity for Naangaam Tamil is not due to Tamil chavunism, Tamil identity or
simple political advantage.  I look at it as education through mother tongue.
I am concerned about the interests of the millions of poor and downtrodden who
are discriminated by the present system of education which serves the interests
of the miniscule percentage of elites.  Before discussing further on Ariviyal
Tamil, I want to stress the importance of education through mother tongue by
quoting well known linguist reseachers, personalities and commitees.

Though there are innumerable number of articles and reports, I will quote a few
of them and give the references for the rest.


S. Sankarapandi

ssankara@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

========================================================================

1. D. P. Pattanayak in "Languages and Education in Multilingual Settings", Ed.
B. Spolsky, College Hill Press, San-Diego, CA. (1986).

(About Dr. Pattanayak: Is a Jawharlal Nehru Fellow and Director of the Central
Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, President of the Indian Council of
Communication Research and training, and  a memebr of the Indian Council of
Social Science Research.  His publications include "multilingualism and Mother
tongue Education".)


     The so-called neutral mediation of colonial languages in Third World
education as a substitute for many mother tongues has created a chasm between
the elite and the masses.  It has resulted in stunted cognitive growth and lack
of creativity and innovativeness in children and the atrophy of indigenous
cultures.  As a medium of education such languages do not only impede the
growth of indigenous languages but they also inhibit the interaction of science
with society, generate inappropriate technology and create an educated elite
committed to pursuing the lifestyle of the developed world.

     A mother tongue is the expression of the primary identity of a human
being.  It is the language through which a person perceives the surrounding
world and through which initial concept formation takes place.  The child is
acclimatized to its environment through naming each object, phenomenon and mood
of changing nature.  Thus the flora, fauna, the colors of the sky, the rhythm
of the rainfall and everything that excites the child and encourages
exploration of the mysteries of nature assume a name and habitat in the child's
mind.  (Can it be compared to ROM of computers ? - SP).

     The mother tongue is the medium through which the child also establishes
kinship with other children and with the adultsd around.  Terms expressive of
relation such as mother's brother's son etc etc are defined in mother tongue.
The role of mother tongue in anchoring the child to its culture can also be
seen from the point of myth.  Whether the myth is transmitted through
grandfather's tales, the ancestral tombstones or the portrayals of Gods and
demons in sophisticated tample architecture, the child is slowly socialized
into a system of beleifs and practices through mother tongue.  So the mother
tongue is that language, the loss of which results in the loss of rootedness in
traditions and leads to intellectual impoverishment and emotional sterility.

     Just as the accentuated poverty in the third world is the result of
resources capitalism in the developed world so ignorance and illiteracy are due
to knowledge capitalism.  Even within the developing world the same capitalist
principles have divided the populace into a small minority elite appropriating
to themselves rank, status and wealth and a vast mass of people deprived of the
very means of subsistence.  Education should be treated not as expenditure but
as investment.  The UNCTAD study which revealed that in 1971 the developing
countries exported 2960 crores of rupees (about 300 billion US dollars) of
trained manpower to the U.S. alone is a proof of educational wastage of systems
which neglect native interests and mother tongue education (more recent figures
were given by somebody in SCI - anybody has the details ? -SP).  IT MUST BE
MADE CLEAR HERE THAT THE ARGUMENT IS NEIGTHER AGAINST OTHER TONGUE EDUCATION
NOR AGAINST EDUCATED PERSONS GOING ABROAD, BUT AGAINST NEGLECT OF MOTHER TONGUE
EDUCATION.  Emphais on the mother tongue dictates an education which relates it
to languages of intercommunication at various levels and thus imparts
education relevent to societal needs.  Replacement of the mother tongues by
another language deprives many people of their subsistence and makes a few
previleged.


     Mother tongue education is a matter of right as well as a need for every
child.  In raising political and economic questions about the raison d'etre of
                                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
mother tongues, the nationalism of rich and powerful seeks the complete
annihiliation of small and defenceless groups.  Moreover, research indicates
that the education in colonial language medium becomes so irrelevent and the
language problem is so accute that enrolment is low and the drop-out rate is
high.  A study by Srivastava and Ramasamy (paper presnted at 20th conference of
Indian Academy of Applied Psychologists, Hyderabad, 1983) on the effect of
medium of instruction, socio-economic status and sex on acdemic achievement and
intelligence of VIII and IX standard students in trilingual media schools
concludes as:

     " it appears that except second language English the difference among the
three groups is no so much in quality and content of attainement as in form,
expression and technique of writing the examinations".

Next those who advance arguments against mother tongue education by saying that
scarce resources should not be spent on inessential applications are practising
bad economics...


    ( To be continued.)

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