Children’s Day: Schools must speak the child’s language and not the more remote ‘standard’ language

Education in any community must begin with understanding that community. When the British introduced the school system, they studied the languages ​​and cultures of India. While promoting English education, they also emphasized grammar and local languages. They prepared numerous grammar books and dictionaries for many Indian languages, including smaller and tribal languages.

Modern India has made education a fundamental right. The National Education Policy emphasizes that children should learn in their mother tongue. Linguists confirm that native language education supports both intellectual and emotional development. Among the many reasons for the region’s educational underdevelopment, language stands out as a very important reason.

Education should lead students ‘from the known to the unknown’. Learning suffers when children are taught foreign concepts in a foreign language. Therefore, making the connection between the child’s native language and the language of the textbooks is vital for true educational development. Language is the most important tool in education, but it is rarely treated with the seriousness it deserves.

The odd case of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region

The Hyderabad-Karnataka region represents one of the most complex and complex linguistic environments in Karnataka. Unlike other linguistically diverse regions such as the coastal belt, linguistic density and diversity here have deeper historical and socio-cultural roots. Any planning, especially in education and textbook design, must take this multilingual reality into account.

Multilingualism means that many languages ​​coexist under mutual influence, exchanging vocabulary and grammar and shaping social spaces through interaction. Without understanding these dynamics, no education system can provide justice to the region.

Kannada itself consists of a variety of dialects, most of which show significant gaps in mutual intelligibility. Standard Kannada used in textbooks has little in common with the spoken varieties of the region and differs significantly from most other dialects in the state. Additionally, exposure to Standard Kannada varies greatly from region to region; Hyderabad-Karnataka region remains the least exposed compared to other parts of the state.

Scholars have identified at least four dialects in this region: Bidar Kannada, Kalaburagi Kannada, Raichur-Yadgir Kannada and Maski Kannada. These differ significantly not only from so-called ‘Standard Kannada’ but also among themselves. Linguists in the field often report that local speakers say ‘We don’t understand your Kannada’, revealing the huge difference. This gap is evident in vocabulary, grammar and intonation.

These dialects, which shape children’s daily lives, begin to disappear from the moment they start school and often become objects of shame. Many teachers struggle with ‘Standard Kannada’, but the authority of Kannada textbooks forces them to devalue their own language.

Local languages ​​and dialects receive little attention in schools. As a result, the world that children know at home and the world presented in textbooks remain disconnected from each other. When students start school, they encounter an unfamiliar language environment with no bridges to help them make the transition. The absence of such efforts creates a gap between school life and real life, leaving children uncertain and uninterested.

This bridging exercise needs to start at the primary level to help students connect their native language with Standard Kannada or the Kannada used in textbooks. When children are able to participate in education through their linguistic diversity, this will lead to a significant qualitative improvement in learning outcomes.

Children are exposed to a foreign language environment from the first stage of education. This alienation breeds apathy and ultimately causes many people to drop out of school. The system labels them as follows: ‘school leavers’It masks its own failures. In reality they ‘pushed out’ in its place ‘left’. Many students struggle until the 10th grade and eventually leave education after pursuing a master’s degree. mistake Certificate. Ironically, many of these so-called failures become successful later in life.

Some students manage to pass the 10th standard through individual skill, talent or special education. However, many experience psychological and social difficulties. Separating children from their native dialect at an early age and forcing them to adapt to Standard Kannada without being sensitive to their linguistic background has a profound psychological impact and is a topic that has never been systematically studied in this region. This neglect continues to silently harm entire generations.

What can be done

As a result, education remains largely inaccessible for the children of Hyderabad-Karnataka, making them an educationally deprived community. Therefore, it is essential to take urgent, region-specific measures to address this situation. Some important steps include:

1. Studying the linguistic environment of the region to shape curriculum design.

2. Documentation of Kannada dialects and integration into the curriculum.

3. Reflecting the regional language and culture in the textbook content and examples.

4. Encouraging the use of native languages ​​or local dialects in the preschool period.

5. Appointment of local teachers familiar with regional dialects and cultures.

6. Developing bridge courses to help students transition from dialects to Standard Kannada or English.

7. Linking children’s native language worldview with formal education.

8.To prepare the grammar of regional dialects.

9. Compilation of dictionaries of local dialects.

10. Creating teacher training materials for language transition programs.

real progress

Implementing these measures can create an environment in which every child in the region has access to education as a genuine fundamental right and ensure real educational progress. To achieve this, a well-structured pilot program should be designed by academics doing global research on linguistics and education.

Supporting these arguments, Year 10 results in the region consistently underperform. All taluks of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region rank near the bottom of the State list. While Sindhanur (64.18%) and Bhalki (58.36%) are the only states in the top 150, most of the others fall below the 170th position, reflecting the widespread educational lag.

District-level results are equally bad; Kalaburagi (34.58%), Yadgir (44.21%), Raichur (45.23%), Bidar (49.13%) and Koppal (50.27%).

In contrast, coastal districts like Dakshina Kannada (87.58%), Udupi (83.40%) and Uttara Kannada (80.34%) lead the state, highlighting severe educational disparities.

(The writer is Professor of Kannada, Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburagi)