An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of students.
Initially this is associated with the expansion of English from its homeland in England and the lowlands of Scotland and its spread to the rest of Great Britain and Ireland, beginning in the sixteenth century. The rise of the British Empire increased the language's spread to British colonies, and in many of these it has remained the medium of education. The increased economic and cultural influence of the United States since World War II has also furthered the global spread of English, as has the rapid spread of Internet and other technologies. As a result of this, there are English-medium schools in many states throughout the world where English is not the predominant language. Also in higher education, due to the recent trend towards internationalization, an increasing number of degree courses, particularly at master's level, are being taught through the medium of English.
Known as English-medium instruction (EMI), or ICLHE (integrating content and language in higher education), this rapidly growing phenomenon has been contested in many contexts.
By country
Canada
Education is a provincial matter under the Canadian constitution, section 92. French language rights have been guaranteed in the province of Quebec since the Treaty of Paris 1763, French outside of Quebec and all other minority languages have faced laws against them at one time or another. English-only education laws were gradually rolled out across Canada during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the Manitoba Schools Question in 1896 and Regulation 17 in Ontario in 1912, which both targeted French and other European minority languages, and the Indian residential schools system which attacked Aboriginal languages.
These policies were gradually abolished in the wake of Canada's adoption of official bilingualism (French/English) in 1969 and multiculturalism in 1971, but English remains the predominant language of education outside of Quebec and New Brunswick.
Wales
In medieval Wales, Welsh schools used Latin as the medium of instruction due to their close relationship with the Catholic Church, though by the 15th century Wales' social elite increasingly viewed learning English as an important step in their education. Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England as a result of the English Parliament's Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542; the acts also established English as the official language of administration and justice in Wales, along with creating a more developed system of local government. This resulted in several grammar schools being established in the 16th and 17th centuries to cater to this demand, all of which taught in English or Latin with students being expected to have learnt adequate English before starting; several grammar schools forbade the use of Welsh in instruction. In the early 1670s, the English clergyman Thomas Gouge began preaching in Wales, and by 1675 he had established 87 schools which were attended by a total of 2,225 students. The schools, which used English as the medium of instruction, were intended "to teach the poor Welsh children to read and write English, cast Accompts [numeracy] and repeat the Catechism". However, these schools closed after Gouge died in 1681.
In the early 18th century, several charity schools were established with the support of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK). By 1714, nearly 100 SPCK schools had been founded in Wales. In the 1730s, the Welsh clergyman Griffith Jones began establishing several "circular schools" in Wales, which aimed to cater to students of all ages. While circular schools used Welsh only, charity schools utilised a mixture of Welsh and English as a medium of instruction; the typical medium of instruction in the SPCK schools was English but speaking Welsh in the schools was not restricted and over 12 schools in North Wales were conducted in Welsh. As noted by the academic Russell Grigg, English was used where it was the local preference. Endowments for 18th-century elementary schools in Wales sometimes specified Welsh or English as the language to be used, but this did not always reflect the reality of how lessons were conducted. The Sunday schools established in Wales in the late 18th century were conducted in Welsh.
During the 19th century, there was an increasing push for English-medium education in Welsh schools. Welsh parents were keen for their children to learn English; knowing the language was felt to be a route to social mobility, made life more convenient and was a status symbol. The upper- and middle-classes in Wales, who generally spoke English, were also eager for the masses to learn the language, believing it would contribute to Wales's economic development and that Anglophone tenants or employees would be easier to manage. Day schools in Wales, which had often been created by voluntary societies in the early 19th century, used English as the sole medium of instruction. The Welsh Not was a form of discipline used at some English-medium Welsh schools. The details of the practice varied; in general, children would be given an object when they were caught speaking Welsh and pass it on if they heard another child speaking the language. The child holding the object at the end of the day would be punished.
In 2025, Gwynedd Council, the county council of Gwynedd, announced it would be phasing out English-medium education as the main language in the county's state schools.
Ireland The poet Edmund Spenser wrote in (1596) a recommendation that "the Irish ... be educated in English, in grammar and in science ... for learning hath that wonderful power of itself that it can soften and temper the most stern and savage nature."
The setting up of 'Royal Schools' in Ireland, was proclaimed in 1608 by James I, with the intended purpose "that there shall be one Free School at least appointed in every County, for the education of youth in learning and religion."
These schools provided an English-medium education to the sons of landed settlers in Ireland, most of whom were of Scottish or English descent.
However, only five such schools were actually set up; The Royal School, Armagh in County Armagh, Portora Royal School in County Fermanagh, The Cavan Royal School in County Cavan, The Royal School Dungannon in Tyrone and The Royal and Prior School in County Donegal.
The National Education System (sic) was founded in 1831, by the British Government, under the direction of the Chief Secretary, E.G. Stanley. Some 2,500 national schools were established in Ulster in the period 1832–1870, built with the aid of the Commissioners of National Education and local trustees.
S. Ó Buachalla states: During the first four decades of their existence, there is no mention of the Irish language in the programme of regulations of the Commissioners of National Education; furthermore no provision whatsoever was made in 1831 when the original scheme was drawn up for education of those children who spoke Irish only. According to the official opinion of later Commissioners, expressed in a formal reply to the Chief Secretary in 1884, " the anxiety of the promoters of the National Scheme was to encourage the cultivation of the English language. The Irish patriot P.H. Pearse published a series of studies of the English-medium education system in Ireland. His article entitled The Murder MachineThe Murder Machine http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900007-001/index.html embodies an article which appeared in the Irish Review for February 1913.
Pearse wrote in his pamphlet the following: And English education in Ireland has seemed: to some like the bed of Procustes, the bed on which all men that passed that way must lie, be it never so big for them, be it never so small for them: the traveller for whom it was too large had his limbs stretched until he filled it; the traveller for whom it was too small had his limbs chopped off until he fitted into it—comfortably. It was a grim jest to play upon travellers. The English have done it to Irish children not by way of jest, but with a purpose. Our English-Irish systems took, and take, absolutely no cognisance of the differences between individuals, of the differences between localities, of the: differences between urban and rural communities, of the differences springing from a different ancestry, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon.
Scotland
In medieval and early modern Scotland, several attempts were made by Scottish authorities to establish English at first among the Scottish aristocracy and increasingly amongst all ranks by education acts and parish schools. The Parliament of Scotland passed ten such acts between 1494 and 1698. In 1609, the Scottish government implemented the Statutes of Iona, which required Highland clan chiefs to send their heirs to the Lowlands to be educated in English-speaking Protestant schools. Among the items listed in the statues was the "planting of the gospell among these rude, barbarous, and uncivill people" by Protestant churches; the outlawing of bards who were traditionally on circuit between the houses of Highland nobility; the requirement that all men of wealth send their heirs to be educated in Lowland schools where they would be taught to "speik, reid, and wryte Inglische."Gaelic in Scotland
The then King James VI of Scotland, followed this by the School Establishment Act 1616, which sought to establish schools in every parish in the Scottish Highlands so that "the youth be exercised and trayned up in civilitie, godlines, knawledge, and learning, that the vulgar Inglische toung be universallie plantit, and the Irische language, whilk is one of the chief and principall causes of the continewance of barbaritie and incivilitie amongis the inhabitantis of the Ilis and Heylandis, may be abolisheit and removeit."
In 1709 the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) was established in order to further funding sources for Highland church schools. All manner of incentives and punishments were used to stop children from speaking Scottish Gaelic. The SSPCK had five schools by 1711, 25 by 1715, 176 by 1758 and 189 by 1808, by then with 13,000 pupils attending. At first the SSPCK avoided using the Gaelic language with the result that pupils ended up learning by rote without understanding what they were reading. In 1741 the SSPCK introduced a Gaelic-English vocabulary, then in 1766 brought in a New Testament with facing pages of Gaelic and English texts for both languages to be read alongside one another, with more success. After a number of years of unsuccessful attempts at English-only teaching methods, it was realized that literacy in Gaelic was a much more effective means of teaching and a bridge towards fluency in English.
Since 1918 education acts have provided for teaching Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas, but development was very slow until Gaelic became an initial teaching medium in the Gaelic areas of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire from 1958. In 1975 the newly created Western Isles education authority introduced bilingual primary education shortly followed by Highland Region in Skye. Gaelic-medium primary education commenced with two schools in 1985, growing to 42 units by 1993/94.