“Let’s Speak English”: Bridging the Linguistic Divide in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Can you imagine a school without classrooms, teachers, blackboards and chalk, clean drinking water, toilets for boys and girls, and a safe, clean playing space? Unfortunately, even for educationally “advanced” states in India, issues of infrastructure and human resources plague the government and rural schools. Tamil Nadu, a state on the east coast of Southern India, has an educational infrastructure and higher enrollment statistics than most other Indian states. Recently, it has gained national and international attention for its innovative implementation of activity based learning (ABL) in more than 30,000 primary schools across the state. On the other hand, in terms of basic reading (mother tongue and English) and arithmetic learning outcomes in young learners, the 2009 Annual Status of Education Report’s (ASER) national evaluation of rural schools, ranked Tamil Nadu in the bottom 33% nationwide. One would have expected that with good infrastructure and a focus on innovation, Tamil Nadu’s young learners would be leading the nation. Why is that not the case?KeywordsForeign LanguageYoung LearnerRural SchoolControl SchoolRote MemorizationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.