The Amar Ekushey Book Fair in January every February is a wake-up call that in Bangladesh language is not just the cultural expression, it is the core of our national identity. Bangla has the legacy of sacrifice and legitimacy of statehood. In the Constitution, Bangali is the state language, and the Bangali Language Implementation Act of 1987 required the use of Bangali in government offices, courts and in official correspondence apart from foreign relations.
However, the practice of the landscape is deeper. English still prevails in superior court verdicts, business agreements, bank papers, airline messages and multinational firms letters. The drafts and development proposals of the policy are usually circulated in English and then translated. This is not an implication of neglecting the Bangla, but an expression of the economic dynamics of a globally integrated economy. The current argument is not thus whether Bangla is to be respected or not, it is constitutionally guaranteed. The actual question is whether the strict monolingual education policy and the official work would reinforce the national competence or unintentionally restrict it.
Bangladesh has recorded good strides in education. Literacy is currently 78 percent, young literacy is above 90 percent and tertiary enrolment has grown in a steady way. However, being literate does not ensure global competitiveness. The breach in professional communication, especially in writing in English, presentation and negotiation skills is often cited as a gap by employers in the export industries, ICT services and multinational firms. Bangladesh is making above 50 billion each year in exports and this has been more than 80 per cent in ready-made garments. These are industries that exist on the global value chains with the compliance documentation, buyer negotiations and coordinates with logistics all being mostly in English. In situations where the local professionals are not confident with such an environment, the firms tend to hire expatriates, which results in huge payment of salaries in foreign countries. And this is not a point of national pride; this is where preparedness is at stake.
The structural schism starts at a younger age. At least up to Grade 12, Bangladesh has successfully practiced two parallel streams of schooling: Bangla-medium national curriculum schools in which most schools are and English-medium institutions in which most international curricula are taught, primarily in urban areas and mostly fee-based. They both yield competent students albeit in varying orientations. Graduates in Bangali tend to be well-conceptualized and win the majority of university and civil service exams. Graduates of the English medium are generally more confident in the area of communication, and have a greater exposure to the international sphere, which puts them at a favorable position in both multinational corporate and foreign academic setting. This is not the difference in intellectual ability but in the focus on training. The danger lies in the fact that the system generates fragmented and not coherent national capability.
In publishing too, where the feeling about language is greatest, there is little clarity. The percentage of books published in Bangli versus English is not recorded in Bangladesh as official statistics. Language breakdowns have not been recorded systematically although thousands of titles are being published every year, at the Ekushey Book Fair. It is, however, becoming clear that there are large stocks of English scholarly, professional and literary books being sold in large bookstores with some actual demand amongst students and professionals. The language is highly contested, yet we do not have all-encompassing information on the distribution of knowledge production. Even that gap implies that more evidence-based policymaking should be undertaken.
The foreign experience is a point of view. State business in China is almost entirely in Mandarin, but in schooling, as well as university entrance tests, English is obligatory. India did not give up English with Hindi and regional languages and the majority of higher learning in the engineering and medical and management fields use English, which has facilitated its service sector globally. Introduction of bilingual education in Sri Lanka was reintroduced as a way of enhancing employability without a reduction in national identity. None of these nations gave up their mother tongue; none retreated in having a worldly communication.
Bangladesh should thus not make language to appear as a zero-sum game. To start with, Bangali must be the dominant language of both internal administration and law and primary school education. This respects constitutional obligations and provides an understanding of concepts at a young age of learning.
Secondly, the standard of English as a practical professional competency should be enhanced in all secondary and higher secondary institutions. The focus on instruction should be on communication and analytical writing and vocabulary in the field of knowledge instead of on the examination.
Third, the bilingual or dual-medium tracks in professional fields like engineering, economics, medicine, ICT and business should be increased in the public universities. This would assist in lessening the structural difference between graduates in the Bangla-speaking and English-speaking mediums and converge capability.
Fourthly, teacher training programmes should be enhanced to enhance communicative language pedagogy in the two streams. In the absence of qualified trainers, curriculum change will be more of a symbolic act than a revolution.
Fifthly, the government offices can implement a systematized bilingual documentation framework. Bangla may continue to predominate in governance to citizens, and parallel English versions are to be ready on the technical, commercial and international fronts.
Sixthly, globally exposed industries should slowly incorporate minimum professional communication standards within graduation requirements. This would directly solve the executive skill gap, which requires the use of expatriate professionals.
The Language Movement was the battle against marginalization. In the book fair we glorify our linguistic backgrounds. The fact that roots must support growth should also be remembered during that celebration. The Bangla provides us with identity and dignity. English offers the opportunity and the advantage. An assertive nation obtains both, not by withdrawing one to defend the other, but through mastering both.
Major General (Retd) Md Nazrul Islam is a former executive chairman of BEPZA, a retired Major General of the Bangladesh Army, and a PhD researcher on technology, workforce transformation, and industrial competitiveness.
