Report of the Study Group on Teaching of English

(Ministry of Education and Youth Services, New Delhi: 1971.)

New Delhi: 1971.)

A. General Survey of the Present Position

1. A number of Committees and Study Groups have in recent times given anxious thought to the place of English in our system of education. The teaching of this language at various stages, its role in school and at the university, its share in the time tables, and its contribution to the teaching of other subjects, form part of a problem which has become increasingly important as well as controversial with the passage of time.

2. Most aspects of the problem were reviewed by the Study Group appointed by the Ministry of Education in 1964. That Group examined the situation in the light of the changed circumstances and the changed position of English both as a subject of study at school and as the medium of instruction at the university stage. (It made a number of recommendations on policies and programmes, syllabuses, methods and materials.)

3. Most of these recommendations are yet to be implemented by the authorities responsible for the making of policies and their implementation at various levels.

4. (During the last five years the situation has changed at a much greater speed than ever before.) In several states, especially in the north, the most conspicuous feature of the changing policies with regard to English is their speed. We have examples of more than one state where, only a few years ago, English was taught as a compulsory language and, however low the competence attained, pass marks had to be secured in the English paper in order to get through the High School examination.