The education system has corporatised our society: Akhtar

Acclaimed Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar says that children from the middle class are learning English at the ‘cost of vernacular languages’.

The middle and upper middle classes have abandoned them in preference to English, which has become a necessity now, Akhtar said at the Kolkata Literary Meet here Saturday.

‘It is a tragedy...The educational system, the globalisation and liberalization has corporatised society,’ he said.

‘English has become... crucial to connect to the rest of the world. But what is happening is that children from middle and upper middle class families are learning English at the cost of the vernacular languages. So, where will they go?’ he asked.

‘The middle and upper middle classes have abdicated the vernacular languages, and these classes are mainly responsible for the literature, beauty and aesthetics of the language. ‘It is being given to the slum dwellers.’