The medium and the message

Many of my friends frown upon the use of the term "vernacular." It is a term generally
used in India for denoting the linguistic medium of schooling when it is other than
English.

Regardless of the various shades of meaning and connotations with which the term is
employed, it might be interesting to look at the etymology of the word. It is the language
of Verna - "home-born slave" (Not servant, mind you, but 'slave'). A word of Etruscan
origin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_language

The word is no more used in respectable and politically correct discourse. But many of us
continue to do so, especially those, who think it elegant and royal to flaunt colonial
legacies.

It is fashionable these days, to scoff at schooling in regional languages as "low quality

education." Time and again N number of experts and educationists have preached to the
contrary. But unfortunately the vernacular mentality of the neo-colonists has been
propagating lies among the innocent.

I'd like to draw your attention to a UNESCO study tiltled "The importance of mother
tongue-based schooling for educational quality" under The Quality Imperative, by Carole
Benson (2004)

The study addresses various myths like :

The one nationone language myth.

The myth that local languages cannot express modern concepts.

The myth, which holds that bilingualism causes confusion and that the first language
must be pushed aside so that the second language can be learned.

The L2 as global language myth.

The myth that parents want L2-only schooling.

"Instruction through a language that learners do not speak has been called submersion
(Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) because it is analogous to holding learners under water without
teaching them how to swim;" quotes the paper.