My education qualification has been quite below the mark. I loved studying but due to financial problems and in order to support my family’s needs I had to work. I studied in a Hindi medium school and I had to drop out due to timing clashes at work. I got involved in several odd jobs to help our financial needs.
We moved to Bombay and while applying for jobs I was always rejected due to my qualification. I applied in night school but I was rejected to go for English medium as my previous schooling was from Hindi medium school. I was disappointed and tried reading newspapers to learn languages on my own. I was rejected for jobs due to my communication skills. I had constant pressure to earn money for our family, but I was helpless.
I got married and few years down the line we were blessed with beautiful children. However we had to struggle a lot to get an admission in an English medium school. But I kept trying, my eagerness to learn English kept growing after knowing it’s importance. Once while working as a security guard, I was fired because I was reading newspaper. While seeing an English newspaper in my hand, the secretary snatched it away from me and got disgusted about it. The society’s committee scheduled a meeting and they made fun of me for reading an English paper. They gave me a last warning and said “English seekhne chale, Kahi videsh jane ka irada toh nahi? I was moved by their behaviour. Our children were denied admission in most private english schools as they had certain guidelines for parents’ background as well.
My elder daughter is a teacher and she is doing really well for herself. Now time has changed but still those international schools are concerned about parents’ school qualification certificate-precisely language. I don’t want my children to face any problems for their child’s education. We have come a long way but the language trend exists till date. The mindset is just so insignificant. People are expected to speak English in most places. There is no emphasise on regional languages.
The idea behind selling newspapers and getting into this profession has been the urge to learn languages. I still tell my children to respect all languages and not just english.
People from vernacular medium schools also dream to get their child’s admission in a good English medium school so they get good job placements but it is disappointing to see that schools reject admissions due to parents’ qualification.
We are under constant pressure to stay updated and follow the trend by giving a true sense to English is India & India is English.
If you have any such similar stories or you know anyone facing problems in their child’s school admissions due to the qualification of parents. High time we end this biased system. Please send us the story to [email protected] & Hindi Medium.
