Introduction
About two years ago, I visited a school located in eastern Terai. I reached the school at 10:15 am, and the students were engaged in the morning prayer. Two different groups of students were praying in two different places. I asked the reason for it. I was shocked when I heard the answer. The students who study in the English Medium (EM) pray in a different place from the students who study in the Nepali Medium (NM). Interestingly, EM students were asked questions about general knowledge during prayer time, but not for the Nepali. I visited the school for different purposes, so I focused on my purpose and collected some information. There were two different buildings, different gates, different teachers, different playgrounds, and different textbooks in the school for Nepali and EM students. I had limited time to discuss the issue of the medium of instruction (MOI). After this observation, I raised and wrote the issues regularly about how the public schools create social class and deprive the underprivileged group who cannot pay fees for English medium. Such practice by public schools limits equitable access to quality education and social justice.
During my professional journey, I have found many schools across the country practising somehow similar cases as mentioned above. I have talked to the teacher and headteacher regarding the different practices adopted by the school focusing on English medium.
English Medium Instruction (EMI) Taken as a Quality Indicator
It is impossible to make a common and single definition of quality education. However, the EM has been established as the quality indicator. This is established by the government, the private sector and some other global contexts. Without the infrastructure and readiness, many local governments direct the schools to implement English medium. Similarly, community schools observed private schools and copied the private components of education in public schools. Nowadays, many public schools are converting to private schools by using private school components in school like entrance examinations, English medium, textbooks published by private publishers, and collecting fees from parents and teachers by school for English medium. Those characteristics of the education adopted by community schools are making low-cost private schools or private schools under the government roof.
As I have collected information from more than 15 teachers, the fee varies from 100 to 1200 per month and varies at different grades. We and many other so-called educators (this is for me) are in dilemma that EM is not the quality indicator but why we promote or why we accept the low-cost private education in private schools.
The community schools that use the EM have their arguments, and many of them say it is a result of parental aspirations. The true point is not only the parents’ aspirations but they don’t want to offer education to low-income or disadvantaged groups of people. One of the teachers shared the history in this way:
‘About five years ago, we discussed in school and concluded we have the students from low socio-economic status. If we perform better, we need students of high socio-economic status. For that, we move to an and make the school private for the parents. Then, about 70 percent of students enrolled in private schools.’
Over a long time, the weak performance of community schools has led to private school opening trends. Over the decades, the number of students enrolled in private schools has steadily increased. According to the data, about 30 per cent of students study in private schools in 2023 (Center for Education and Human Resource Development, 2024). The school that started English medium shared this is the parents’ interest, but the layman’s parents cannot differentiate the quality. They listen to English as a quality, so they are interested. Community schools provide the EMas with a quality indicator, and they understand it. We do not have such strong research and data to claim it, but it shows the quality from the parents’ socio-economic status and private school components, even the private teacher. A teacher’s and headteacher’s opinions presented below claim that EMis quality indicators.
Teacher: We don’t know justice, equity, and many other things; our school offers English and NM education. We did it to fulfil the parents’ interest. We are committed to quality education. If the parents can pay the money, their child will be in EM, and those who cannot do so can go to NM. Students in EM are selected from highly competitive entrance examinations. We faced the pressure at the time of enrollment, but we can’t consider it. We have received many awards for better performance in the grades 10 and 12 examinations.
Headteacher: Our school did very well in the present day when our school started EMI and the number of students increased day by day. Most of the students enrolled in our school are from private schools. We are creating a challenge for private schools using the English medium. We select the students from the entrance. There is no place for weak students. Parents need to spend time with their children. They need to come regularly to school, and we have a weekly and monthly examination system. Sometimes weak students should attend the additional tuition class.
Equitable Access and Justice
Many community school teachers believe that children from poor, marginalized and disadvantaged families are not ready to learn, and because of the lack of awareness of the parents, they are not able to perform better. The different stakeholders strongly advocate the message, but they forget the right of the children to access quality education. Many of the education stakeholders like headteachers, teachers, management committees even the policymakers, do not seem to pay attention to social justice issues and equitable access to education. EMI creates class differences within the school and society. To gain parental attraction, the community schools used the strategy of EM, and they created a social class (Study in EM and Study in NM ) in the school.
During the development of this manuscript, I collected data from different parts of the country, from Ilam to Dadeldhura. Most of the schools offer EM to attract private school students, and they collect the fees. Then, the parents become happy because they get the opportunity to provide private education in community schools, paying a small fee. Few schools offer EM without any additional cost, but they select the students from the entrance examination. Deprivation is found in many ways within the school. The role of schools in promoting social justice becomes adverse. The deprivation is highly established by the entrance examination for enrollment and the collection of tuition fees to offer EM education. To show better results, selecting the best students to take the entrance exam is very popular in EM schools (Ranabhat et al., 2018). It creates a social hierarchy and leads to inequality and deprivation.
Two schools in a single compound offer two types of education and develop the child in a discriminatory environment. Many schools practise different buildings, playgrounds, drinking water, laboratory, library, etc. The schools in West Terai bring students who study in English by school bus, and students who study in NM come to school on foot. As mentioned by Sah (2023), the EMI creates unequal education space in the school and social positioning in the classroom. The students in the same school do not play in the same group from different mediums.
Discrimination in terms of opportunity is not only the problem, but the psychological feelings of the parents and students are also important. The school and society recognize that EM is quality education, and the feelings of the students within the school are important. The students who study in EM feel like the upper class, and those who study in NM feel like the lower class. The students who are enrolled in EMare ‘entering the new middle class identity (Sah, 2023).
Promoting the English Medium
Local Palikas and politicians have been promoting EMI without providing additional resources, capacity assessment and the school readiness palikas direct to school to implement EM. It is surprising to mention, what is the factor and how the policymakers or politicians (local Palika representatives) are motivated by it. Schools are happy with the EM because it allows them to collect the fees. One school teacher who teaches in EM in the community school appointed by the school as a private source shared, ‘The government permanent teachers are taking rest, because schools started EM and there are no students in NM (Personal communication on June 26, 2024). Some local Palikas have declared that all community schools should use EMI, which is not possible in all the schools and is not a good idea.
The school headteacher argued that the government does not provide sufficient funds and that we need to collect them from parents. The reality is different. Offering the EM requires extra money. They need to manage different teachers and EM coordinators. The different levels of government don’t tend to pay attention to this issue, which is against equal access to education. The trend of using EMI increased steadily throughout the country. The government policy has not differentiated in the evaluation process and practice. School using EM shows better performance, competing with private schools components. Then, these schools have been rewarded making their identity as better schools. Thus, the other community schools learned directly that EM is a key education reform strategy. I think the EM has become the panacea of education reform. But in reality, it is promoting social injustice, thereby leading to a disempowering gap between haves and have-nots.
Public education has certainly served the poor and disadvantaged groups of people without any discrimination. In the name of quality education and showing the parents’ interest, the public schools are converting into private in disguise. To make society cohesive and inclusive, public schools have to welcome all students, and they tend to focus on students who need support. Local Palikas and the government policy and mechanism should be developed to address the issues and focus on the disadvantaged groups.
Conclusion
A growing number of schools offering EMI creates inequality and inequitable learning access, quality, and educational relevancy. Schools refer to the parental aspiration but it is a strategy to defend them from criticism. Schools do not have any other strategies to improve classroom teaching and learning. They apply private school components like selection in enrollment, collecting the fees, manage the private teachers in most of cases. I wonder if their existing teacher and resources cannot afford EM, why they established the strategy within the same community schools. Schools located in urban areas apply these strategies and the schools in rural learn them. The local governments are not able to focus on holistic reform and they also promote it. The serious matter is that schools and teachers are not ready to accept the criticism and they argue that they do fair but neglect the disadvantaged groups of people and children.
References
Center for Education and Human Resource Development. (2024). Flash Report I 2023. Sanothimi.
Ranabhat, M. B., Chiluwal, S. B., & Thompson, R. (2018). The spread of English as a MOI in Nepal’s community schools. In D. Hayes (Ed.), English language teaching in Nepal: research, reflection and practice (pp. 81-106). British Council.
Sah, P.K. (2023). Emotion and imagination in English-medium instruction programs: Illuminating its dark side through Nepali students’ narratives. Linguistics and Education, 75, XX. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.10115
Author Bio: Mr. Devi Ram Acharya is a research scholar studying at Kathmandu University, School of Education. He has more than 15 years of working experience in education particularly student learning assessment at the national and classroom level. Currently, he is researching classroom assessment practices in Nepali school education. His area of interest is student learning, assessment, education quality, school reform, and transformation.
