Impact of Medium of Instruction on Verbal, Numerical and Reasoning Abilities and Academic Performance of School Students

The use of mother tongue against English, as medium of instruction, has created a wide spread debate all over the country. Decision about language (medium) of instruction in education policies is a challenging task to the policymakers who have to give equal emphasis to students' native language to maintain linguistic and cultural identity, and to English to promote students' proficiency in the international language.The present study aimed at investigating the impact of medium of instruction on verbal, numerical and reasoning abilities and academic performance of school students. The sample comprised of 300 students studying in 8th standard in the schools of Panaji city of Goa state. It was hypothesized that the students who had their primary education in mother tongue medium and those who had studied in English medium do not differ significantly in their verbal, numerical and reasoning abilities as well as academic performance. To measure these abilities sub tests of David's Battery of Differential Abilities by Sanjay Vohra (2011) were used. The data was analysed applying t-test. The results revealed that students with primary education in English medium have significantly higher verbal ability, numerical ability and academic performance than those with primary education in mother tongue medium.