I talk a lot about education, about it being one of the most significant factors that can change a woman’s life. And I truly truly believe this. For how the world is set up, education gives women, in particular, a fighting chance. It is the best option when available, when possible, in my opinion.
It is also an imperfect, flawed system.
India has an ancient history of education. But it was in colonial India, that “modern” education systems were set up, similar to ones in Europe, which grew under British rule. So when I’ve wondered why my education in India included virtually no mention of local history, the answer lies in a memorandum written by Thomas Babington Macaulay, an English historian and politician, who in 1835 popularised the idea that all traditional education, which included vernacular languages, was inferior compared to learning in English. Macaulayism, this was called. This was also the year of the English Education Act, when Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of the British East India Company, redirected government funds to schools that taught a “Western” curriculum in English instead of the limited Hindu and Muslim education and literature this previously supported.
Point to note: Growing up in India, I didn’t even hear of the term colonialism until many years later, much less have it explained as part of a history lesson. A major criticism of current day British education has been that it does not feature the extent of the former British Empire or the country’s relationship to its colonies. For the latter, Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera is a start. Get the book in India, here.
English is so widely used today that it’s irresponsible to not enroll kids in schools where they learn the language well. But how the English school system came to be in a non-English country like India is messed up. And not to discount places like Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT and Yale but the roots of the Indian obsession with an American/Ivy League/British education as something so aspirational and prestigious is clearer now.
So many years later, I now understand why students were never encouraged to speak in the local regional language at my posh convent school in Southern India. The very real outcome of this has been I can still only understand snatches of Kannada when spoken very slowly even after living in the city for a quarter of a century. I don’t feel confident to visit a government office or speak to a police officer on my own. It’s embarrassing I can’t speak it with any fluency. I can manage some reading, my writing is less promising. I’m not the only one though. This is true of nearly all my extended family in neighbouring Chennai, who despite living in that part of the world all their lives, still know shockingly little Tamil.
My convent school education means English is the only language I am fluent in. At home, we speak a localised version of Urdu which I cannot write and barely read. I can haltingly read the Arabic script. And because Hindi was a mandatory second language at school, I can get by with using it although how I pronounce words or stumble over them has made people laugh.
In the UK and USA, children attend public schools based on where they live, further widening the disparity between who has access to a quality education. Richer neighbourhoods mean better schools and the opposite is usually true in lower-income neighbourhoods. This is compounded by teachers who work unreal hours with an unfair workload for which they aren’t compensated anywhere near fair.
To understand the far-reaching effects of education, quality of education, access to education, watch this short, really well-explained video. This uses American neighbourhoods as an example. The disparities are many times starker in a country like India that has a complex history with caste and class discrimination.
To understand the scandal that actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were at the centre of because they paid a middleman to get their children into college in America, but also to get how weird and corrupt admission to US colleges can get, watch Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal on Netflix. While the focus of the film is different, it also confirms what is widely known: higher education, in the United States, but nearly everywhere that’s worth it, is not just about making the grades. It is also eye-wateringly expensive.
At what point does an educational institute shift from being a place of higher learning that makes greater opportunities possible to a business that charges customers to buy a degree?
Educating a woman, investing in a woman’s education, is an effort worth making I cannot underscore enough. The biggest setback, in my opinion, is when families don't prioritise a girl’s education. It’s too expensive, she won’t need it/use it, the boys need to go to school instead — coming up as many of the tired excuses. Sometimes, it takes only one adult to say a girl’s education is important, to stand up for her and insist she goes to school. Because in a world set up to help the brightest succeed, getting an education is still one of the best routes to set a woman up for success.
In Women Wins this Week
Zaila Avant-garde (could she have a more fitting last name?) won the Scripps National Spelling Bee this year. She also made history becoming the first(!) African American and only the second Black person to win the title in the competition’s 96-year history (WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG — could a flawed education system be to blame?)
According to this story, part of the reason is:
Zaila said she hopes to inspire other African-Americans who might not understand the appeal of spelling or can’t afford to pursue it.
“Maybe they don’t have the money to pay $600 for a spelling program, they don’t have access to that,” Zaila said. “With tutors and stuff, they charge, like, murder rates.”
The bee has been rightly celebrated as a showcase for students of color — a speller of South Asian descent has been the champion or co-champion of every bee since 2008 — but Zaila is not the first speller to point out issues with economic diversity.
Indian-Americans are the wealthiest U.S. ethnic group, according to Census data, and Indian professionals who immigrate to the U.S. have access to a network of bees and other academic competitions targeting their community.
Casual, the 14-year-old is also a basketball wonder kid who holds three Guinness world records. She hopes to play for the Women’s NBA someday.
If, like me, you’re wondering what happened to the steady Indian winners, here’s a fun read about a South Asian history with the spelling bee.
Dina Asher-Smith, aka the fastest woman in British history, is on the digital cover of Vogue UK this month — fierce.
Who knew I loved oral histories of much-loved films so much. Here’s an NYT one about the feminist Legally Blonde (which turns 20 this week) and an unrelated but really entertaining one about Bollywood’s Dil Chahta Hai.
*Separate question: Why do pandemic years have to be 20+ anniversaries for so many millennial pop-culture references. Haven’t we suffered enough 😭
My former colleague, Jasreen Mayal Khanna’s book Seva: Sikh secrets on how to be good in the real world, is out now. Look at the pretty cover below. Noor, as she’s known to friends, has written about the core principles of Sikhism, the value of being good and doing more good. What’s not to love? This Instagram post sums it up nicely. She’s also done some really fun, informative reels which you can watch here. As someone deeply interested in how faith intersects with people’s lives, I’ll be reading every page. Get your copy now. The book will be available in the UK in 2022. I couldn’t love the hashtag more. Please #BeASardar
Also available now is Tahmima Anam’s new book, The Startup Wife, for a woman’s perspective and humour on bro culture in the startup world. Worth a listen is this podcast episode with the author.
And I really liked this piece by Rainesford Stauffer about why it’s okay to outgrow the life you thought you wanted.
Special mention: Ladies, I’ve been using Sabrina Suhail’s liquid lipstick and it is absolutely fantastic. Major brands regardless of formula dry my skin out and make it peel the next day, which happens more often than not. But Sabrina’s customisable, vegan cosmetic range is so so good, it lasts all day and makes my skin feel fab. Get the full range on her website. Products ship worldwide.
One of the positives of the pandemic is that we’re not so tied to geography anymore. So if you can make the timings work (UK time), Kajal Odedra, executive director of Change.org UK, will be hosting free classes every two weeks on writing and activism. I’m already signed up to the first session.
Schools and curricula aside, being educated is very different from having an education. As much as I am its greatest advocate, perhaps education’s biggest shortcoming is that performance in school systems is no indicator of intelligence or ability or creativity. Some very talented people have not been through a world-class education. And for those of us who are fortunate to have attended good schools and universities, we have to make an effort to never let that stop us from recognising goodness and greatness and all the other wonderful things that can’t be taught in a classroom or from the pages of a textbook.
xx
AA
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Really well researched and written post. I have lately been thinking a lot about this. Like you, I too went to a convent school, where we lived in fear of being suspended or whacked on the knuckles for speaking in a language other than English. Even as I write this now, I feel a sense of misplaced pride about it. As if, English is far superior than our mother tongue or the regional language. Until recently, I felt a sense of pride (and perhaps even superiority) for not being able to speak Kannada or Hindi, but be fluent in English. As you rightly pointed out in your post, it is actually something to be embarrassed about. And I am.
The video on the racial disparities was a good one too. The differences are stark in a country like ours. Definitely something we need to start shedding a light on. Recognizing colonialism for what it was is a good starting point. There's a lot of good that came from it, perhaps. But it's important to craft the narrative such that we don't sacrifice culture, roots and informed education at the altar of progress.