In a big bet on upskilling, a southern Indian state switches to English-medium schools

Nine-year-old Vijaya's neat, careful English writing gives her parents visions of her as an engineer. ST PHOTO: ROHINI MOHAN
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VIJAYAWADA, ANDHRA PRADESH - When Vijaya learned to write the English words "boy", "girl" and "teacher" in the third grade, her parents were ecstatic.

Her mother, a domestic worker, had never gone to school, and her father, a vegetable vendor, could read only Telugu, their mother tongue and the language spoken in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where they live.

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