Sunday, 14 September 2014

Letter to Shree Shashi Tharoor on 16 December 2013



Dear Hon. Minister of State for Human Resource Development
I am writing to draw your kind attention to the deplorable level of English used by the CBSE in its exam papers and the entire documentation.  I have been in regular correspondence with them ever since my letter emailed to your ministry on the 4th of March this year was forwarded to them and they responded to me for the first time. I am sorry to claim some of your valuable time, but please let me reproduce the letter below:
Dear Hon. Minister of Human Resource Development
I am writing to bring to your kind notice a number of errors in the CBSE class 12 English question papers used in the examination held on the 1st of March 2013. Please find my note on them attached to this mail. Since my letters to the CBSE have never been acknowledged, through your good offices I wish to impress upon them the urgency of taking necessary steps to improve the quality of English used by them. I personally think that all English question papers should be checked by the Hyderabad-based English and Foreign Languages University. Or else, a native speaker of English, preferably from Britain, should be appointed by CBSE to check and edit all English documents produced by them. I regret to say that I have rarely come across a CBSE circular that is free from language errors. You may kindly depute someone to peruse the CBSE circulars issued in the last couple of years to check the veracity of my statement.
I have written to the CBSE Chairman again today as I hardly see any improvement in their English exam papers, syllabus material, etc. Please find my letter to them attached to this mail. I assure you that even a cursory glance at the attached letter will convince you of the gravity of situation.
As a teacher of English I have been greatly concerned about the rapid decline in the standard of English in India. If time permits, please throw a glance at a couple of issues raised by me in my article Use & Abuse of English in India: the Need for a Scrupulous Approach to Using English available on my blog: http://eduspiritual.blogspot.com  
I look forward to your addressing the issues raised in this letter and also hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.
With regards
H. Pd. Singh

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