[spaceman_2020]

A lot of developing countries are in a phase of working out their future paths. Most of them inherited colonial institutions and power structures and are finally hitting a point where all the old guard has died or become irrelevant.

There’s a period of negotiation - figuring out what parts of your colonial history you want to keep, what to change. So many things we assume as “normal” invariably have roots in colonial past. Current systems of Democracy, strict courts of law, scientific education, while great, were introduced by earlier colonial rulers.

Most countries will now spend a few decades fumbling around in internal negotiations to figure out whether they really need 14 years of scientific schooling, democracy, etc.

[omginternets]

Why do you suppose that educational institutions are on the chopping block? That would seem like precisely the part of one’s colonial history to keep.

I understand that it has become common to attribute a number of injustices to heritage from the colonial period, but why education in particular? Why that more than fashion, say, or the institutions of law?

[spaceman_2020]

For one, educational systems is pretty much where you're truly indoctrinated into the system (any system) and its values. The current Indian education system was inherited from the British and still retains most of its elements. A post-colonial state seeking to right all the injustices of the past - some real, some imagined - would likely want to change the first step its citizens take into the new system they want to create.

In India's case, the dilemna is that the jobs the citizenry aspires to are only accessible through the current British-origin education system. This current government has made a huge push for Hindi language education, for instance, so much so that it even mandated courses in science and medicine be taught in Hindi, even when there are few good translations or instructors.

The citizenry, of course, finds its own way. Despite all the Hindi push, every city is lined with tuition centers that promise to teach you English, because that's the ticket to a better job.

The negotiation, once again.

[omginternets]

Am I understanding correctly that courses are (mostly?) still taught in English? If so, that suddenly makes the situation a bit more legible to me from the outside!