English in India is neither a home language nor a foreign language, in terms of its uses in the community, but rather an indispensable second language. It would be absurd to expect an average Indian child to achieve the same degree of sophistication in handling the language, after perhaps rather less than 300 hours a year instruction in it over five or six years as his English counterpart who is immersed in the language all his working hours. Nowadays, whenever an educationist open his mouth to speak, a few words are bound to fall from his lips on the teaching of English: the importance of English as a basic subject; the necessity of giving it a prominent place on the time-table, and of making sure that the school learner possesses enough of it be able to fill in forms at the labour exchange. The reduced importance of English after independence may not be directly responsible for the fall in the standard of achievement of the pupils in English though it has rather indirectly resulted in the reduction of the place of English in the school curriculum. The number of periods allotted for the teaching of English in the schools is considerably reduced.