As English-medium schools gain popularity, their Hindi counterparts see sharp drop in Rajasthan

English medium schools in Rajasthan have become the first choice of parents which is why the number of Hindi medium private schools have gone down in recent decades. According to the data available on the Rajasthan Education Department’s website, there were 37,000 private Hindi medium schools in Rajasthan which has come down to 13,780 in the last ten years. Looking at the importance of English medium schools, even the Rajasthan Government has opened over 2,000 such schools.

Anil Sharma, president of School Shiksha Pariwar, while talking to The Indian Express said that in the future only English medium schools will be the norm.

“You cannot blame the parents because all higher education is in English. Entrances for the JEE, CLAT, AIIMS, NEET are all held in English. Not being able to speak in English is seen as an embarrassment for most Indians. Hence, parents are opting to admit their children into English medium schools. I believe in the next ten years, there will be no private Hindi medium schools in Jaipur,” said Sharma.

Many private Hindi medium schools have now converted into English medium schools and those who are functioning are recording a decline in admissions.

CEO of Tagore Group of Institutions, Ruchika Solanki said her organisation has both English and Hindi medium schools. According to her there has been a 70% drop in admissions in Hindi medium schools as most parents prefer English medium until affordability becomes an issue, in which case parents go for Hindi medium.

As the choice of parents towards English medium is rising, there is a rise in the number of private English medium schools catering to low-income groups.

Om Prakash Jagaka, director of Shri Pratap School, Chomu, who has students belonging the unorganized sector said, “Schools that charge low fees are rising as most parents now-a-days prefer to send their children to English medium schools. Most of our children come from a background where their parents work in an unorganized sector who are always in search of English medium schools whose fee is low. Even though the quality of education is not taken into consideration in most of the cases, still English medium tag is enough for such parents.”

There is, however, a problem that parents have noticed in students studying in English medium schools who do not have quality teachers. They says students in such schools can’t fluently speak Hindi or English. “In older times, a Hindi or English medium student used to be well-versed with the language but now with the quality of English medium schools going down with poor quality teachers, students do not have command on any language. Only the number of private English medium schools is increasing, not the quality,” lamented Dilip Meena, a guard in Jaipur who sends his son to an English medium school.