Mother tongue education will improve our grades. It is only because of English that we are held back.

Indian and Chinese kids in USA (zeroeth generation) are toppers in all streams. Despite the education being in not their mother tongue.

Something doesn't add up. ++

Our edu woes run far deeper and wider than the medium of instruction. If that weren't the case, and if medium of instruction were to be the only differentiator, we would by now see a clear industry pull for grads in mother tongue stream. It is the opposite.

We have low quality teachers. We have crappy syllabus and a rent seeking edu sector. All of these are far bigger problems than the medium of instruction.

By all means, do start your mother tongue schools. But unless you address these issues first, the cart ain't going anywhere.

I repeat .. you need buy in from parents. And the nature of the society is such that your buy in has to be from the cream of the society. For achieving that, you have to get industry pull. For that, you need to have proved your model. Start with existing govt schools.

Adopt the local language govt schools and raise their quality. Push the kids into industry. Measure their progress, learn from your own mistakes. Then expand the scope. Now the industry is a partner. This is a 10-15 yr project.

Don't like the time frame? Try ITIs.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. You have to prove both scale and depth. Going top down is not my cup of tea. Especially when my own kids are not going to pay the price.

Of course, RajaRaja Chozha built peruvudaiyār kovil with Tamizh and Sanskrit. But guess what? He had top quality people to both teach and to do. Today we don't have quality teachers.

We have system that pushes mediocrity into edu stream. Top quality practically flees the sector.

And for all the sly I get on this topic, I am not even saying don't do it. Am saying do it step wise. Start small. Learn. Iterate. Expand.

"go big or go home" sounds inspirational. But we won't be the ones left carrying the shit can if things go awry!

I refuse to gamble with lives, livelihood and future of others' kids - especially when my own are not going to be affected by my fantastic ideas ..

I will fight fantastic ideas that even refuse to consider the possibility of failure.