vkm on "Urdu’s last stand"

vkm — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:44:15 +0000

The fundamental truth underlying all statements about the English language in the subcontinent is that it has continued to be the de facto language of rule. It is the mother tongue of the ruling classes. The need for English education is so that the middle classes can gain entry to the ruling elite.

The question that faced education planners Sri Lanka in the mid-1970s (the last occasion in which education reform was contemplated in a serious manner) was how English was to be taught to the children without having sufficient teachers proficient in the language. Efforts were made to teach English using the mother tongue, which were bitterly opposed by vested interests, particularly the text-book publishers.

At that time, 14% of the population knew English, as compared to 80% who knew Sinhala and 28% who knew Tamil. These proportions have not changed drastically, but English is spoken of as a 'link language'. I believe that Sri Lanka has the highest level of English usage in the subcontinent. So how can a policy that failed here succeed in the other South Asian countries?

financepk on "Urdu’s last stand"

financepk — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:08:01 +0000

Ehsan Masood. You seem to me to be as misquided about the ground realities as Mr. Javed Qazi is when making the education policy. Thought I would like to refute every justification you have provided for the new policy, I think it would be better to quote from an excellent artice by Zubeida Mustafa in Daily Dawn at http://dawn.com/2007/01/10/index.htm

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Take Nadia�s case. She attends a private school (charging a monthly fee of Rs300) near her home in a low income locality of Karachi. With her mother�s help she has learnt to read and write Urdu fluently. I talked to her about the moon and the stars and explained the concepts of tens and units � in Urdu. She understood what I told her perfectly since this is a language she is familiar with. That night she even went out in the courtyard to explore the celestial bodies.

Nadia reads her English book fluently, but without understanding a word of what she reads. Like all children she has a phenomenal memory. If the federal education minister�s new language policy is put into effect, Nadia will be denied the excitement of discovering the mysteries of the skies for she will not understand what she reads or is told by her teacher. Mathematics will become a lot of mumbo jumbo for her. But Lt Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi wants children like Nadia to be taught the natural sciences and mathematics in English. Since her mother does not know English there will be no one to help her tide over the language difficulties as is done by the mothers of thousands of children in the elite English medium schools.

It is shocking that our education planners fail to understand this simple piece of logic. They counter the demand for the mother tongue being the medium of instruction in the early years of schooling with the argument that English is the international language of the day and if we want to progress we will have to teach in English. There is no denying the importance of English. But why confuse the issue? A child can be taught in the mother tongue, especially in the formative period of his life, and he can also be taught English as a subject. In fact if this approach is adopted, English can also be taught well.

At an age when a child is grappling concurrently with knowledge, information, literacy skills and numeracy skills, is it wise to burden him with all this in a language he does not even understand? Wouldn�t it be better to let him acquire knowledge in the language he has been hearing and speaking ever since he was born?

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There is an earlier article at

http://dawn.com/2006/12/20/op.htm#2

I suggest you read it. You are entitled to your opinions but using half baked to ideas to justify them is not a good idea.

Urdu's last stand, Ehsan Masood

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A new education policy in Pakistan signals a shift from the idea of Urdu as the country's everyday working language, says Ehsan Masood. Read the rest of this post...

open Democracy News Analysis - Urdu's last stand, Ehsan Masood - Comments

vkm on "Urdu’s last stand"

financepk on "Urdu’s last stand"

Urdu's last stand, Ehsan Masood