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- 251 THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION IN OTHER COLONIAL CONTEXTS LANGUAGE, LITERACY AND SOCIAL EQUITY IN INDIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS By Caroline Dyer69 Introduction Many claims are made for the importance of literacy to human development. While the evidence may be somewhat less robust than it appears (Rose and Dyer 2006), particularly in relation to women’s literacy (Jeffery and Basu 1996), international evidence suggests that many schools are not delivering either enough, or the right kind of, literacy to enable development (UNESCO 1999). A socially situated perspective on the acquisition of literacy that is useful for development recognises that alphabetisation of each individual takes place within wider socio-political, language and economic contexts. Paran and Williams (2007: 2) point out that while research into social practices of literacy in developing countries is increasing (e.g. Street 1995) it is in these same contexts that "fundamental research into reading is relatively scarce". In India, research on literacy acquisition is dominated by work on English rather than regional languages; a focus on the pedagogical implications of acquisition of literacy in Indian languages is rare (but see Nag 2007, Patel 2004, Mishra and Stainthorp 2007). Much remains to be learned about the links between local languages and literacy learning at school, and their roles in promoting social equity – a key Indian educational policy goal. This chapter reflects on these issues, drawing in part on empirical findings of field work begun in 2008 to investigate this issue in 51 government schools in the District of Jaipur in Rajasthan, northern India. This chapter also reflects on debates familiar from the African context - questions of whose language literacy should be provided in, and how "literacy" should be measured. Birgit Brock-Utne’s (2007a) discussion of these contentious issues for example refers to a problematic stance reflected in an article on "illiteracy" in Sierra Leone, where Kingsley Banya (1993) writes: 69 The author acknowledges with gratitude the funding provided by the ICICI Bank of India’s Social Initiatives Group. - 252 Only about 25% of the country’s population were (in 1961) literate in English, which is the official language. However, most people are literate in Krio, which is the lingua franca of the country. .... in absolute numbers there has been a tremendous expansion in the number of illiterates. As the population has increased, the number of literate people has not kept pace; 85 out of every 100 Sierra Leones are now illiterate (Banya 1993:163, cit Brock-Utne, 2007a; see also Brock-Utne, 2009). To term Sierra Leones who cannot write and read English illiterate, even though they may read and write Krio, the lingua franca of their country, is a curious analysis. A more plausible alternative is discussed by Casimir Rubagumya (1991, cit BrockUtne 2007a), whose discussion of language promotion for educational purposes in Africa argues that that the enormous increase in Tanzanias’ post-independence literacy rate would not have been possible had Tanzania not had a common national language, Kiswahili, which everybody could understand. By his definition, literacy is the ability to read and write in any language, in this case an African lingua franca. The complexities of linking languages spoken to judgements about literacy, and how this is measured, familiar to those familiar with the debates in Africa (exemplified in example in Birgit Brock-Utne’s work) find many reflections in the Indian context discussed here. Language and Literacy Contexts The 1961 Census found that India is home to some 1,652 languages belonging to five distinct language families (Abbi 2004). Twenty-nine of those are each spoken by over a million people (Census 2001); and 22 are listed in the Indian Constitution under the Eighth Schedule (UNESCO, 2008; see Fig. 1). Article 350A of the Constitution states that the primary education must be in the mother tongue of the pupil (Vishwanathan 2001). In such a multilingual context, the language in which education should take place is a complex question to which a workable solution needs to be found. Educational provision follows multi-lingual policy that was outlined in 1952, revised in 1961 and given the name the ‘Three Language Formula’ (TLF); and modified again by the 1964-66 Education Commission (see Sridhar, 1996 for detail). The TLF has been endorsed by the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) (2005) and consists of: mother language or regional language; an official language, either Hindi or English; and another modern language, Indian or foreign (UNESCO 2008). [3.131.110...

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