Messing with English language learning in West Bengal has cost this eastern seaboard state (pop. 91 million), which right until 1970 was commonly acknow-ledged as the country’s most literate and well-educated, dearly. From the mid- 1960s when Marxist fever spread through West Bengal’s famous colleges and universities, the state’s education system has been in decline. This fall was accelerated and sustained during 34 years (1977-2011) of uninterrupted rule in the state of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government.

Initiating a Mao-style cultural revolution in the state, the Left Front completely banned the teaching of English in primary-upper primary (classes I-VII) education. This diktat had a cascading effect on secondary and higher education which combined with government-sponsored student agitat-ions and faculty infiltration by CPM cadres, has wiped out West Bengal’s pre-eminent status as an education hub. Currently West Bengal is ranked #27 on the pan-India Education Development Index (EDI) of the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA).

However the incumbent Trinamool Congress government of West Bengal led by feisty chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who routed the CPM/Left Front in the historic legislative assembly election of 2011, seems unaware of the dangers of messing with the state’s two-language formula. On July 12, the state government sent a proposal to a 19-member syllabus reforms committee headed by Avik Majumder, former assistant professor, department of comparative literature at Jadavpur University, to recommend an amend-ment to the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Examinations (WBCHSE) syllabus which mandates compulsory learning of two languages.

To reduce “undue stress” reportedly suffered by higher secondary (classes XI-XII) students, the state government has proposed making the study of one language optional. This proposal has not found favour with the majority of members in the syllabus reforms comm-ittee which wants higher secondary students to learn two languages as compulsory subjects. The majority opinion is that higher secondary stud-ents need to learn the state language and English, as is the norm of most state examination boards countrywide. “If only one language is compulsory, urban students will choose English while rural students would be inclined to choose Bengali. This will place rural students at a disadvantage in higher education while hurting Bengali and vernacular languages,” explains a syllabus reforms committee member, who requested anonymity.

On the other hand, the state’s education ministry is in favour of making one language optional. “Higher secondary students writing the class XII exams of the CBSE and CISCE boards are given the choice of making one language optional. The examinee’s average is calculated on ‘best-of-five’ subjects, in which English and three subjects are compulsory, while the fifth is optional. With most students likely to write competitive exams immediately after completing class XII, it is unnecessary to saddle them with two compulsory languages,” says Muktinath Chatterjee, president of WBCHSE.

However Sunanda Sanyal, former professor of English at Calcutta University, believes the Trinamool Congress is replicating the error of the Left Front government. “Experi-ments with English language learning during the Left Front decades have already done great harm to the education system. Bengal had a rooted tradition of universal learning of Bengali and English prior to Left Front rule. It’s important this tradition is revived. If not, students of rural Bengal will again be deprived of quality higher education,” warns Sanyal.

Unfortunately for the beleaguered citizenry of this once educationally envied state, the populist Trinamool Congress government seems as ignorant of West Bengal’s history as the Left Front government that preceded it.

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)