Times, They're a Stoopin'!

The Times of India allowed this article to feature in its daily on July 24, 2013. A one line summary of this article would be this:

It's preposterous, in this context, to say that everyone living in Bangalore is expected to know Kannada. This is one more example of not much thought going into the production of schoolbooks.

The context being alluded to here is the appearance of some Kannada poems printed in Roman script in textbooks of classes 1 and 2. Oh! What a shocker, isn't it? What is? That the author, while talking about textbooks, makes a big mistake in relating the school going children that are taught Kannada to all the people living in Bangalore!

(Source: TOI)

While it is preposterous by itself for a national daily to be carrying such a lopsided report that sarcastically ridicules the State's education system and its appointed bodies, it is sad that it is based on the author's poor understanding of the teaching ecosystem within a school, or even within a city. The author summarily ignores, not even discounts, the vital role of teacher-to-teacher interaction at the school level, and in some cases even at the school district level. For anyone accustomed to the project-work style of teaching in many contemporary schools this should appear like another interesting project for kids to come back with their comprehension of the poems; the author conveniently sidelines all such creativity that a good teacher will anyway possess.

As if it were a given, the author assumes that English teachers in these schools do not know Kannada, neither that they communicate or even share rooms with teachers who know Kannada. How dangerous an assumption, if it were true, this is that it hints at the poorest state of affairs in schools that some of our own children are being educated in. It shows what kind of isolated dins we're sending our children into everyday, where teachers do not talk to one another, do not share lessons they learnt, nor do the schools communicate among themselves, do not evolve the best methods of teaching out of such basic collaborative means. What kind of future citizens (of this city?) are we making out of our children by indirectly providing such isolated wells as schools where one is supposed to learn the fundamental lessons for one's life?

If such assumptions of this author are indeed true, there need not be any doubt that these schools are designed to drive our children down the rotten lane of life. If untrue, I wonder what a national daily like TOI is doing by printing such articles time and again!?

IRS '11Q2 results: Looking at the Fine Print

A week ago MRUC (Media Research Users Council) reported results from its recent surveys of print media readership conducted across the nation. Statistics relevant to Karnataka reveal pleasing results with every other newspaper gaining readers on top of their base from previous year. This news clears the table and lays data afresh, portraying once again how printed content in Kannada still continues to top and lead readership charts across the state, with urban hotspots like Bengaluru being no exception.


A question of capability and choice
The IRS (Indian Readership Survey) is, according to an official release :

.. a syndicated study based on a comprehensive sample size of 2,14,486 with a geographic spread of nearly 70 cities, 1178 towns & 2894 villages...The random sample size is distributed across all metro towns, rest of urban & rural using an appropriate method that ensures adequate sample representation across all the population strata.

Apart from being a good manifestation of a people's literacy ratio, IRS data are also a good 'currency' for advertisers and media houses to trade with. These data provide statistical reassurances about the market reach of newspapers - something that media and ad agencies expect to obtain by partnering with the print media players in the form of advertisements and sometimes (paid) news! In effect these results are much awaited by benefactors in business & media houses alike. While business houses interpret this data to measure the capability of print media to reach their market audiences, media houses use this data as currency in exchange for a proportional amount of advertising investment by business houses.


There, but not yet?
Evidently, the Kannada print media has come out in flying colors in every successive IRS survey in the last 6-8 quarters, displaying fierce competition among its leading players, each inching further towards a higher readership QoQ (Quarter on Quarter). The following leader-board illustrates this competition, making evident the battle for the top two spots thereby emphasizing on the value of playing in the Kannada print media market. 

Kannada Print Media Leader Board (10Q1-11Q2)

This may be news to cheer, but statistics underlying them expose the relatively meager coverage of Kannada literates (& Karnataka population in general) compared to their other South Indian counterparts. 


Since literacy of a state directly dictates its limit of print media penetration, the same reflects in the maximum AIR (Average Issue Readership) numbers one can expect to see in each state. Kerala with the highest literacy among South Indian states tops the charts, both in terms of literacy and AIR whereas Karnataka with a literacy better than Andhra still fails to beat it in terms of AIR. This is not an exception we can ignore, for it indicates how poorly Kannada print media has been able to tap the literate Kannadiga population and also various other people that can read and understand the Kannada script. The following chart summarizes this trend.

AIR vs Literacy trend

While literacy agreeably plays a critical role in defining the market size, traits of a print medium such as: 

• content quality, 
• readership loyalty, 
• distribution efficiency, 
• localized rendering of content, 
• emphasis on local language usage, 
• ability to customize content and render it more appealing to local audiences 

Reach Comparison (%)

- appear to be influencing a newspaper's patronage. Kannada print media has miles to go and work to do to improve their patronage on the lines of what its neighboring language presses have achieved. This chart exhibits (in percentages) how a majority of print media in South India, especially the Kannada version have stayed below the average both in terms of net AIR and net literate AIR. (The red dotted lines represent averages.) While it may not be able to do much that can directly bump up Karnataka's literacy, the Kannada press certainly needs to strengthen its focus on education in Kannada medium and emphasize on the importance of increasing the usage of Kannada in every walk of life in Karnataka. Even a small example cited in this regard points fingers at a Kannada daily which writes reams about the importance of Hindi for Kannadigas, or another which does nothing to educate advertisers to not field English advertisement in a Kannada daily. The Kannada press isn't doing enough to help broaden the Kannada reader base! What is observed today instead is that quite a few Kannada press members have, unconsciously or otherwise, become glorifiers of the success stories in other languages thereby sidelining what is being done and what needs to be done to empower Kannada to reach the same stage for Kannadigas.


Contrasting 'under the lamp' observations
The Kannada press has certainly got some reason to celebrate, especially keeping in mind the fact that repeated IRS results from Karnataka and Bengaluru have revealed Kannada dailies as leaders in terms of AIR year-on-year, reinforcing the truth about how deep Kannada alone penetrates into this society. In this backdrop wild & wrong assumptions and misplaced fears like Kannada losing prominence continue to be expressed by concerned authorities like the head of Kannada Abhivruddhi Praadhikara. All these surveys and their results - confirming that more than 17 out of 20 Benglurians listening in public (FM, for instance), talking in public (FM, again), and reading papers are plugged in to Kannada - seem to be falling on closed eyes of responsible people. Is it time for them to wake up yet?


PS: One fairly reasonable assumption made in the calculations here is no overlap of readers of two newspapers, thereby making the AIRs of two newspapers linearly additive in nature.

ಯಾರ ಲಾಭಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆ ?

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಒಂದು ಹೆಸರಾಂತ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯೆಂದು ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ತಾವು ಕರೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಕನ್ನಡ-ಪ್ರಭದವರು ಮೊನ್ನೆ ತಮ್ಮ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಮುಖ-ಪುಟದಲ್ಲಿ "ತಾಯಿ ಕನ್ನಡತಿ, ಆದರೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳು...?" ಲೇಖನ ಮೂಡಿಸಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಏನೀ ಲೇಖನ? ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರು ಸಂದರ್ಶಿಸಿದ ಸುಮಾರು 6000 ಹೆಂಗಸರು (ತಾಯಂದಿರು) ತಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಲು ಯಾವ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮವನ್ನು ಆಯ್ಕೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಾಡಲು ಏನು ಕಾರಣಗಳು ಎಂಬ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶ ಪ್ರಕಟಣೆ ಇದ್ದ ಹಾಗಿದೆ ಈ ಲೇಖನ.

ಇರಲಿ.. ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಕಡೆ ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸೋಣ. ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಕಾರ್ಯರೂಪ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಬಹಳ ತಿಳಿಯಾಗಿ ಕಾಣುವ ವಿಷಯವೆಂದರೆ ಇವರು ಮೊದಲೇ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತರವನ್ನು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ಅದನ್ನು ಜನರ (ತಾಯಂದಿರ) ಬಾಯಿಗಳಿಂದಲೂ ಬರುವಂತಹ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬುದ್ದಿ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿ ಅವರ ಮನಸ್ಸುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅದನ್ನು ಬಿತ್ತುವ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಹಾಗಿದೆ. ಈ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮನಸ್ಸಲ್ಲೂ ಅಡಗಿಯೇ ಇದ್ದರೂ ಇದನ್ನು institutionalize ಮಾಡುವ ಹುನ್ನಾರ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದವರಾದ ಇವರದ್ದಾಗಿದೆ.


ಸುದ್ದಿ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ನಿಭಾಯಿಸುವ ಹೆಸರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದದ್ದನ್ನು ಇರುವ ಹಾಗೇ ಹೇಳಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಹೊರತು, ಅವರೇ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಸಮಾಜದ ಏಳಿಗೆಗಾಗಿ, ಉಜ್ವಲ ಭವಿಷ್ಯದತ್ತ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ತೋರಿಸಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ಏಟು ತಿಂದಿರುವ ತಾಯಿ, ತನ್ನ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಅನ್ನ ಉಣಿಸಲು ಅವಳಿಗೆ ಆಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲವೆಂಬುದನ್ನು ಬಿಡಿಸಿ-ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ತಾಯಿಗೆ ಮಲಾಮು ಹಚ್ಚಿ, ವಯಸ್ಸಿಗಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆ ಸಾಯದೇ ಇರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಜನ ಮುಂದಾಗಬೇಕು (ಯಾವ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ) ಎಂದು ಕನ್ನಡದ "ತಾಯಂದಿರಿಗೆ" ಕಿವಿ ಮಾತು ಹೇಳಬಹುದಿತ್ತಲ್ಲವೇ ಈ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದವರು? ಬದಲಾಗಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ ತಾಯಿಯನ್ನು ಈಗಲೇ ತ್ಯಜಿಸಿ, ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ತಾಯಿಯನ್ನು "ದತ್ತು" ಪಡೆಯಲು ದಾರಿ ತೋರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರಲ್ಲ ಇವರು?


ತಾಯ್ನುಡಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಬಲ್ಲದು - ಇದು ಜಗತ್ತಿಗೇ ತಿಳಿದ ನಿಜ. ಇನ್ನು ಮಗುವಿನ ತಾಯ್ನುಡಿ ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ಇರಲಿ, ತಮಿಳೋ ತೆಲುಗೋ ಯಾವುದೇ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಇರಲಿ, ಇಂದು ಆ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಂದುವರೆದಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದು ಗೊತ್ತಿರುವ ವಿಷಯ ಮತ್ತು ಆಯಾ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಜನ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ವಿಷಯವೂ ಹೌದು. ಇನ್ನು ಯಾವುದೇ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯೊಂದರ "ಸಲಹೆ"ಯನ್ನು ಆಧರಿಸಿ ತಂದೆ-ತಾಯಂದಿರು ತಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಯಾವ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಬೇಕು ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಆ ನಿರ್ಧಾರದ ಮೇಲೇನು ಈ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಪ್ರಭಾವ ಇಲ್ಲದ ಮೇಲೆ, ಅನಾವಶ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಆ ವಿಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಜನರನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆಣಕುವ ಗುರಿಯೇನು? ಇವರಿಗೆ ಜನರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಾಳಜಿ ನಿಜವಾಗಿಯೂ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಅದನ್ನು long-term ಪರಿಹಾರಗಳತ್ತ ಕೈ-ಮಾಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ತೋರಿಸಿದರೆ ಒಳಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡದ್ದೇ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯಾಗಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಕಲಿಕೆಯ ಸಲ್ಲದ ಗುಣಗಾನ ಮಾಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಜನರು ಇವರನ್ನು ನಂಬಬೇಕಾ ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದಂತಾಗಿದೆ, ಅಲ್ವಾ? ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಬೆಳೆಯುವುದಕ್ಕೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಕುದುರುವುದಕ್ಕೂ ಸಂಬಂಧವೇನಾದರು ಕಂಡು ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆಯಾ ಈ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯವರು?


ಪ್ರಜಾಪ್ರಭುತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಬದಲಾವಣೆ ಮೂಡಿಸಲು ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳಿಗಿರುವ ಬಲ ಇವರುಗಳು ಅರ್ಥ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡರೆ ಚಂದ. ಆ ದಿಕ್ಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಗಳತ್ತ ದುಡಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕೈಗಳ ಬಲ ಇಮ್ಮಡಿಗೊಳಿಸುವ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನಾದರೂ ಇವರು ಮಾಡಬಹುದಾಗಿದೆ.