Different regimes have been heard with tall promises of bringing true reforms in the education system of Pakistan. But reforms in our education system have always been one step forward and two steps backward. In 2013, when the PTI came into power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it introduced the English medium in almost all state-run schools. All the text books of the lower classes were converted from Urdu to English. The decision was, no doubt, taken with the aim to make the state-run schools’ environment parallel to the private ones. Why? Because in Pakistan, there is a catastrophe that English is regarded as the yardstick of measuring the mental capacity of a student.
In our education system, there are several factors that have been affecting the studies of students of almost all levels, among which curriculum courses being in English is on the top of the list.
There is only one way to ensure quality education, that is to impart knowledge to students in their mother tongue. Of course, this is an undeniable fact and has been widely acknowledged that any country cannot move ahead until imparting education in mother tongue is ensured in it. It is also said that true learning and inculcating something is possible in one’s own mother tongue.
We cannot ignore the scope and reach of the English language as it is an international language, but promoting the idea of education in mother tongue is the need of the hour
If we take the example of China, it had gained its freedom later two years than our country but it is years ahead of us in different walks of life. One of the factors behind their success is that they are not producing philologists but there the students are taught in their mother tongue. Also, not a single example can be provided of developed countries where other languages are that much preferred as in our country. Also, in the USA students do learn French and Latin as well as other foreign languages, but there whole curriculum courses are never converted into Latin and French or other foreign languages.
Contrary to this, reviewing the system of Pakistan’s education, before the independence the people of the Subcontinent suffered at the hands of the British, and after Independence their language (English) has been ruling on us despite seven decades elapsed of the independence of the Pakistan. There have a number of movements been run by many people in order to alter this system and to promote the idea of imparting education in mother tongue, but by bad luck all they went waste.
We have been hearing this phrase for many years that thousands of kids are out of school, but it wonders that why nobody dare to say that those who are in schools; they suffer from the effects of a broken education system. A student first has to focus on learning English, and only then he or she may learn something further. A report said that Pakistani students of specifically state-run schools can barely read a sentence. The reason behind this is nothing else but the English language, that has been made mandatory and all the courses of primary level are in English which students find difficult to learn and is like an obstacle between the students and true learning.
If quality education and real learning are needed, then students must be imparted knowledge in their mother tongue. Students don’t gain the exact idea or knowledge in the right way as the way they may gain it in their mother tongue. There is nothing bad in English, nor do I oppose it, as I myself had English as my major subject in my academics, but how can this fact be brushed aside that true learning is only possible in one’s mother tongue.
Is the high priority given to the English language in our country aimed to keep the students away from quality education or just to limit the learning of students to learning English?
We cannot ignore the scope and reach of the English language as it is an international language, but promoting the idea of education in mother tongue is the need of the hour.
Source: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/11/20/english-rules-our-education/
