Sankrant Sanu on why it is important to learn in one’s mother tongue

One of the best interviews put up by Shri Iyer, and Mr. Sanu’s assessment about teaching in mother tongue is absolute truth.Indians are still in a cocoon due to false narrative on english and colonial past. English did play a major role in unifying India from 500 princely states and establishing an administrative system. But if the country has to exploit human potential, it needs to encourage local languages as suggested by Mr.Sanu.

True, medium of instruction in Osmania university as well as administrative language in Nizam rule was urdu till police action and late PM, Shri Narasimha Rao and many other intellectuals studied courses in Urdu.Being an alumni of a Regional Engg College ( now NIT ) i have noticed most of the students came from rural background and have done exceptionally well, though educated in their mother tongues.

With digitalization,i noticed the younger generation are able to access internet, and participate in social networks using their mother tongue.Take the case of fishermen where MS Swaminathan foundation have developed an APP through whichthe fishermen are advised on weather and maritime boundaries through alerts in Telugu and Tamil. i am sure many more such APPs will help rural people in future.

Telugu people are basically from Agri background with high ambitions but lack business skills and patience. Hence they lay emphasis on education and their temperament is compatable to IT field where fast reflexes are required. Hence they are Indian face of world IT market.

To become a world economic/ business player, indians need to have foreign language skills in Japanese, Mandarin,Swahili, German, French and Spanish. English language proficiency at best provides jobs in US, where as skill in foreign language opens doors all over globe to indians in every field.

The action of AP govnt to shut few telugu medium schools is incorrect. Where are the teachers , and the english language has to be explained in Telugu only. More than language, skills play a major role in countries development and let our law makers study the EU countries with multiple languages and draft an independent educational policy with english as a language for communication

Fantastic views on education and a great opportuniy for India to take up such brilliant suggestions by Mr. Sanu. A very enlightening interview and a great eye opener. Sure hope India takes up this challenge instead of fighting among themselves and depriving their people of growth and opportunities. Thanks to Sri Iyer and PGurus.