Do our children have any alternative to English?

A child upon stepping into a cathedral comes across his name on a plaque pinned to the entrance wall. He wondered who that man was with the same name as his and had been honoured for his contribution to the Second World War. The story continues to reveal a journey that a man from one Asian country took to fight with the allied powers to victory. That is the first glimpse into the war, enabled by Onjali Q Rauf, a British author of Bangladeshi origin, in her book The Lion Above the Door meant for children as young as seven or eight.
Books or content in any form for children are no longer limited to witches, wonderlands and fairy godmothers. A universe of knowledge has been opened to children by modern writers, filmmakers, and documentary makers about subjects as wide as a refugee crisis, ice melting in the Arctic, and why  Neanderthals, an archaic species of humans went extinct but not Homo sapiens.
Unfortunately, Ms Rouf or Yuval Noah Harari, author of Unstoppable Us; Hanna Gold, author of The Lost Whale, and most other brilliant writers have penned extraordinary tales for the young audience in English, and fortunately, with the blessings of the Internet, anyone from any corner of the world can access them.
Adults like us who have grown up watching arguments against or in favour of education in English or Bangla in Bangladesh, often contemplate what deserves higher priority. Our nationalistic mindset often forces us into a debate on whether we should stick to our roots or not.
While Bangla is our mother tongue and it is very dear to us, it should not stand as a barrier to learning another language. In fact, having the ability to read, write and speak several languages is no longer seen as an exceptional talent. Not anymore. Schools in many countries offer several language courses to children, which is why, maybe, employers nowadays ask job applicants about the languages that they are able to communicate in, other than English and their mother tongue.
Since the English language dominates the areas of research in world history, international politics, economics, medicine, engineering and almost everything else that has a great influence on our lives, not learning the language is not an option for us. Because of the British colonial legacy, people from most countries choose English as their second language, which is why writers, scientists, researchers and even filmmakers prefer English to their mother language to disseminate their knowledge to a larger audience. It is an impossible feat to make a translated version of the content if that is the goal we have set. We will always stay behind considering the astonishing pace at which knowledge is being gathered, processed and presented in every way possible in this era.
While globalisation was initially about withdrawing borders in trade and commerce, it has gradually become more and more relevant in other aspects of our everyday lives. In consequence, information and knowledge have glaringly appeared as belonging to the set of global commodities that no one should be deprived of. Because without access, one does not get to exploit his/her full potential. Recently, though wars and right-wing politics may have threatened to reverse some of the developments that globalisation has ushered in, knowledge is not going to be part of the efforts of deglobalisation.
Now to make our children global citizens in learning, establishing equal rights, wiping out discrimination, helping their communities thrive, raising resistance against further destruction of nature, showing empathy to fellow human beings and turning the world into a better place to live in, they must be given access to global knowledge that is available in English.
The strength of the language and the Internet has proved over time that education can be taken out of the grip of the privileged and be made universal.

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