MOTHER TONGUE AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
Mother tongue is a person's native language. It is the one that he speaks first as a child. He has the knowledge of things around him through this language. Normally the early education of a child is carried on in it. The question of medium of instruction arises at higher levels of education. Then the student has to learn different subjects. He has to understand them thoroughly.
For this purpose his mother tongue may not be well equipped. If the medium of instruction is the student's mother tongue he can easily grasp the subject. He can express himself well without any difficulty. Any other language may not provide him such an opportunity.
But many regional languages do not have the strength of being the medium of instruction. Books on several subject are available in languages like English. Regional language do not have the required vocabulary and terminology. They have to borrow words from either English or any other language. A student has to depend on English for acquiring higher knowledge in any subject.
There are a number of regional languages. Each state has its own medium of instruction. One who is educated in a state cannot continue his education in another. So a common medium of instruction throughout the country will be a good thing.
After independence efforts are made to enrich the regional languages. Textbooks are written in them. Scientific terminology is being coined in native languages. Now even at the post graduation level regional languages are being used as medium of instruction.
You may also like :
