As soon as I stepped out of the Airport premises I was being continuously greeted with ubiquitous banners, hoarding and signboards of countless private universities, schools and colleges with fancy, Anglo centric nomenclatures underscoring their proud allegiance to the language of our once coloniser. Curious, I soon found out that in Bangladesh, unlike any other country on the planet, three parallel education systems were in place simultaneously: Bangla medium, English medium and the Madrasa education with its emphasis on Arabic. To my utter dismay I also came to realise that in major urban areas English medium was fast outsmarting the once all-pervasive Bangla medium. Everyone was proudly flaunting the marvellous monikers of his/her offspring's early educational institutions and was unabashedly discussing these schools' astronomical fees and mandatory donations in not so discrete a manner. It seemed that the whole city was buzzing with this inescapable topic.

This is a universally accepted truth that the best child education is the one imparted in one's mother tongue. There is simply no substitute to it. In fact our greatest literary figure and himself a renowned educator, Rabindranath Thakur has unequivocally compared education through vernacular to the sacrosanct mother's milk, in terms of its unsurpassable quality and value. Not only it is easier for the kids but also it makes their whole learning experience an enjoyable one. Moreover, language is not just a mere medium of instruction it is also the most effective and useful vehicle of one's culture and tradition, which is the very essence of all education. A person and his/her education are not complete without a strong cultural footing, which can never be attained through the mediation of an imposed foreign language.

I have a feeling that we all have mixed up our priorities. These days one can sense urgency in the air towards learning the English language, the spoken English, to be more precise. There is no denying that English is the true international language today and mastering it can only benefit one. However, to learn the language itself and be able to speak it is one thing and using it as a medium of instruction, especially for the early learners, is another. In reality the majority of the students will never have to use English language to either conduct their daily life or earn a living working in Bangladesh. Why should we then burden their learning process with a rather redundant subject?

Even if we decide to do that for a greater good then the existing national curriculum should do the job provided we address the drawbacks and limitations of it. We all know that presently a student is obliged to take English as a mandatory subject from class One to HSC level. If we have a good, well thought-out curriculum in place, follow an effective and ingenuous teaching method and have qualified and trained teachers then twelve years of continuous exposure to and learning of the English language should be more than sufficient to at least attain the functional capability of this language. If someone wants to go beyond that mark and learn and use it in its full potential then s/he can easily take a comprehensive English language course in any of the accredited language institutes of the country. And if they are in short supply then we can pressurize our government to set up more of those nationally.

During my extended stay in the Occident I have come across plenty of immigrant students from China, East Europe, Russia and the Latin America who had virtually zero exposure to English language prior to their arrival in the West and yet were able to master it within a year or so by simply following an extensive language course. Same is true for the numerous Bangladeshi students who went to Russia and other non-English speaking European countries for pursuing higher studies. They all had to undergo a one year intensive language course after which they were not only able to speak the language as fluently as the natives themselves, but also were fully capable of even writing their academic dissertations in that newly acquired language. This only proves my point that to learn a language one doesn't have to make that particular language his/her medium of instruction.

I hope our leaders and policy makers will realise this sooner than later. Otherwise we will soon be confronted with a national crisis. General standard of our education will go down further. At the same time a whole generation will grow up without affinity and respect for their own language and culture. They will consequently indulge into the mindless imitation of the alien culture thus causing more harm and permanent damage to our social fabric. The development and enrichment of our language itself will also be impeded because of its non- or lesser-use. On top of it, a tiny English speaking minority grabbing all the lucrative jobs and positions will be wielding their unstoppable financial and social power on the less fortunate majority.

This is indeed an ominous sign for the nation as a whole. We should therefore take all measures in order to avoid this doomsday scenario. Our first and foremost responsibility will be to establish a uniform, universal and secular education system with Bangla as the primary medium of instruction. We should even strive for using the vernacular as the medium of instruction for the higher education too by writing more textbooks in and translating others into Bangla. At any cost we can ill-afford to disgrace the supreme sacrifice of our language martyrs by relegating Bangla to the back burner. By the same breadth we have no right to disregard the spirit of our glorious liberation war and compromise with the very founding principle of the independence: upholding our linguistic and cultural identity and autonomy.