Language divide deepens: English access mirrors caste hierarchy

Hyderabad: In Telangana's evolving education landscape, language has quietly become one of the sharpest lines of inequality. The SEEEPC Survey-2024 and Independent Experts Working Group report shows that access to English medium education — now closely tied to jobs and upward mobility — rises with caste advantage and drops steeply among the most marginalised communities.At the state level, 47% of people below 30 have studied in English medium, but the distribution is deeply uneven. Among general castes, the figure stands at 56.6%, followed by 48.1% among BCs, 40.7% among SCs and just 36.6% among STs. The report calls this a "significant language-based educational divide", linking English medium education to competitive learning, higher education, employment and digital participation. The disparity becomes starker when viewed across individual castes. While the state average is 47%, access reaches as high as 72.4% among OC Brahmins and similar levels among OC Komatis, but drops to around 11% among ST Kolams. The upper tier is dominated by forward castes such as Brahmins, Komatis, Kammas, Velamas, Rajus and Reddys, along with a few upwardly mobile BC groups like BC-B goldsmiths and Padmasalis. At the bottom are communities such as ST Kolam, ST Gond, ST Koya, SC Beda and BC-A groups like Valmiki and Odde. Most SC and ST castes fall below the state average, with SC Malas being a rare exception. ‘Birth lottery'The report highlights that English medium education has become a crucial pathway to socio-economic mobility. It links language skills directly to access to the global knowledge economy, describing it as a new gatekeeper in the ‘birth lottery'. Communities that have shifted towards English medium schooling are better positioned to move into skilled professions. Goldsmiths and Padmasalis, for instance, show around 75% access among youth, reflecting attempts to overcome economic disadvantages. In contrast, communities with low access to English medium education remain concentrated in traditional and insecure occupations. The report notes that Kolams, with minimal access to English education, also have high dependence on agricultural labour, with 50.4% engaged in such work. Similar patterns are seen among groups like Mudiraj, Valmiki and Pitchiguntla, where English medium access remains below 30%. Schooling accessThe divide is closely linked to schooling access. Private school enrolment is significantly higher among general castes at 30%, compared to 17.3% among BCs, 9.6% among SCs and 7.8% among STs. Since English medium education is largely concentrated in private institutions, the gap reflects both caste and class inequalities. Importantly, the urban data shows that this divide persists even in cities. In GHMC areas, 88.4% of OCs studied in English medium compared to 73.6% of STs and 70.8% of SCs. Similar gaps are visible in other urban districts, indicating that urbanisation alone has not bridged the language divide. P Shankar, national secretary of Dalit Bahujan Front, said the divide begins with unequal access to schooling itself. Most SC and ST children study in govt schools, where English medium education is either absent or weak, while children from other castes are more likely to attend private schools. He said the job market is increasingly linked to English and argued that all govt schools should offer English medium education along with nursery classes.