UPSC Exam Row

A government employee who understands only English and does not understand Hindi is worse than an illiterate because he can't understand language of common people whom he is supposed to serve. We need a government employee who can understand people. They need to understand English also as secondary skill and not their main skill. The main skill need to be knowledge of regional language because it helps in serving people better.

We need to remember that government employees are there to serve people and not rule them like in British time. If government employee needs to learn 2 or 3 languages to qualify for a IAS post then they better learn them, because government is paying money for their skills. So why government is giving special importance to a language which is spoken and understood only by 2% people? If knowledge of English is required than we can hire translator for that. We don't make Japanese language a mandatory language just because we need to have trade with Japan. If hiring translator looks expensive then we can hire people with multiple language skills. For purpose of being a good administrator English language is not a mandatory skill.

Currently admission in B.Sc., B.Tech, and many other courses are being granted based on marks of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and this scheme is producing good engineers. I don't think adding a compulsory English paper will improve quality of engineers. It will degrade quality of engineers because people knowing good English and bad knowledge of science will get higher ranking if English is made a compulsory part of exam and marks are counted in merit.