Once I was talking to a rickshaw wala about his life story. I also asked him the how-about his kids upbringing. He simply replied, “Saab, main bhi sochta hun ki bacchon ko angreji school mein daalun. Magar paison ki dikkat hai. Kahan se launga main itni saari fees?” Now to interpret this, the standards of government education is in doldrums. (I call them ‘Ram Bharose chalne wali padhai’.) So its quite natural on a father’s (irrespective of his own profession) part that he would like to see his children excel in a language which can fetch them jobs later.

To make one of the solutions very simple, promote English in Government schools like never before. So that those children coming out of those schools don’t have to face a huge challenge (sometimes it becomes cultural shock for them too) when they compete with big city folks for higher education. Even if regional languages (including Hindi) are been taught in schools or books, magazines and journals are been printed in Indian languages, one language will ultimately rule over the minds, i.e., English. Every job interview (mostly private) demands specific level of English proficiency as they don’t prefer mediocrity. And government jobs is not available for all.