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What pisses me off MOST about the NEP is the fact that rich UC families will get access to english because that’s the language parents use too. This will impact the people who’ve seen social mobility just in the last decade as blue collar gig economy workers./
These folks have seen their life shift so drastically because of a phone and some basic access to English. Yes there are massive drawbacks to work they do, but it’s given them a foothold in the world of aspiration they were previously not even allowed to think of./
For them, children learning English is a way of cementing their presence here and now that’s taken away. Most people seem to think all children can pick out languages in 6th grade too- it’s patently false. It’s children who have guidance, resources, and a LOT of material./
That is a minuscule, unimpressive number of people like you and me. The rest of this country relies on an overstretched and underfunded govt school system. We’re irrelevant and watching people crow about how this will ‘save the country’ is so deeply disgusting. I don’t have words
Private schools are going to offer ‘English modules’ and ‘immersion trips’ at a higher rate that won’t be available to the (anyway paltry) number of EWS students. It’s going to throw people out of the system faster than ever before- children wont be able to keep up.
And yes, english is our coloniser’s tongue and yes, it’s a historical burden. It is also a massive competitive advantage we have globally and it allows us access to the rest of the world. All these can be true simultaneously. Don’t fall for this regressive linearity.
