COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LANGUAGE POLICIES FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION IN THREE SOUTH ASIAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

This study examines the language policies in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka within the context of school education at primary and elementary levels. Based on the review of policy documents and the current available literature, this research focuses on the objectives, implementation challenges and outcomes of language policies. Comparative analysis reveals some common themes such as the promotion of national unity, the need for a common language for easy and quick communication, balancing linguistic diversity, preserving the regional and marginalized languages and addressing the issue of learning the global language. Challenges in the implementation of the policy include no political will, a lack of enthusiasm for preserving regional languages, shortage of qualified teachers, poor infrastructure, and limited resources and teaching and learning materials. A prominent theme is that of the low proficiency of the three nations in English. Each country is grappling with the growing influence of English which overshadows the growth of the rest of the languages. In the absence of a national language, India’s three-language policy faces uncertainty about having a lingua franca across the country. While Pakistan has a strong national language, it turns out to be marginalizing the regional languages. With two national languages, Sri Lanka’s trilingual policy emphasizes learning three languages to develop ethnic reconciliation. However, the policy’s uneven and poor execution is producing the speakers with low proficiency in the target languages, especially in English. This comparative analysis will help policy makers to identify the basic issues in the education language policies so as to overcome them for a more linguistically proficient and vocal India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in future.