Anil writes: "What good would a carpenter, or a doctor, or an electrician be if s/he cannot articulate his ideas and thoghts well and communicate those ideas and thoughts effectively?" I agree with you conceptually. But having seen how things work out in Nepal, I disagree with you as a matter of practical consideration. Anil, you and I were both very lucky to have excellent English AND Nepali teachers in high school. But unfortunately, the reality is that most Nepalis -- who are very talented on their own in the arts or in the sciences or in mathematics -- do NOT have good teachers to begin with. They fail NOT because they are dumb or stupid, but the resources devoted to teaching languages remain so khattam. Most of these students fail their language classes, and are labelled "failed students" overall. Our credential-obsessed Nepali system is so impractically rigid that once you fail a subject or two on your SLC or +2, climbing out of that mess becomes AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT task. Most students simply give up, and are doomed to live lives that fall far, far below their potential. And that's very, very sad for a country that has NO other resources except its human resources. Once the students fail in Nepali or English, almost ALL formal academic/professional doors are closed to them. And that destroys ANY chance they might have to have a even a minimally successful career as a, say, electrician or a plumber. Even to go to a, say, plumbing technical institute, you need to have passed your SLC or +2 -- which, I think, is too HIGH a barrier given our realities. I'd have supported these self-styled members of the Nepali bhasa brigade if they had argued for BETTER Nepali teaching, if they had lobbied for MORE RESOURCES to teach better Nepali to more students. But what disgusts me is that these guys are NOT interested in pushing for that sort of thing. Claiming themselves to be more-Nepali-than-thou, and painting their critics as people out to destroy Nepali nationalism, these guys just want to shove compulsory Nepali down the throat of all students in Class 11, whether they want it or not and whether they like it or not and whether they need it or not. My position is this: Make English optional from Class 1 onward. Make Nepali optional from Class 11 onward. Give more Nepalis chances to succeed in life through BASIC up-to-high-school level education which allows them to at least seek jobs to make a living. There's no point teaching compulsory English to 2 million kids in Year I to have only 500 of them speaking that language to tourists by Year 12. English may be an international language, but, let's face it, NOT every Nepali is going to have an international career! Besides, we simply do not have the resources to teach English well to all. And if Nepalis need to learn English or any other languages later on for professional reasons, they can always join classes and learn those languages much quicker just as Nepalis have learnt Spanish, French, Chinese and German very well in much shorter amount of time. Likewise, I 'd like to LOWER the barriers for success in Nepal so that more Nepalis can pursue VARIOUS paths to success without going through the ONLY available narrow funnel of school-based language classes. ****** Anil writes: "What good would a carpenter, or a doctor, or an electrician be if s/he cannot articulate his ideas and thoghts well and communicate those ideas and thoughts effectively? " Anil, I have dealt with electricians and carpenters for construction-related work in Nepal, and, believe me, their fluency in any language was of LEAST concern to me as long as they understood and carried out my instructions to do the work they were hired for. That said, I am wary of very articulate electrician or a plumber who is lousy at his job. Who knows, he may be affiliated with some rinky-dinky UML-trade union, and may cause trouble at the work site. :-) oohi ashu *****