Learning English can offer opportunities to the poor to be able to earn a decent livelihood, both at home and abroad
RAWALPINDI: On a constitutional petition, the Supreme Court gave directions for Urdu to be used as a language for official and educational purposes. The decision is in line with Article 25-1 of our Constitution. There is a plethora of evidence that instruction in one’s mother tongue fosters critical thinking, besides developing self-esteem and intelligence in learners. Japan was able to recover from the ashes of the atomic bombings because it taught its children in its native language. France and Germany also rebuilt themselves in the post-war years through reliance on their own languages. Unesco, in 1953, observed that a foreign linguistic medium retards expression and understanding in a child’s mind psychologically, sociologically and educationally. We see an enumeration of our children’s pedagogical problems in learning in Medium of Instruction Policies; Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? by James Tollefson. Hywell Coleman’s report quotes a 1904 British government document that recommends the use of vernacular languages in primary schools (“Teaching and Learning in Pakistan: The Role of Language in Education”).
However, as Murphy’s law states, “Nothing is as simple as it looks.” Urdu is the mother tongue of only about 7.57 per cent of our population. Apart from our major languages, there are 55 variants spoken across provinces. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Northern Areas, for example, there are more than 20 dialects of their version of the mother tongue. Many people in various parts of the country regard Urdu as a foreign language in relation to their ‘mother’ language or dialect. If we impose Urdu across the board in Pakistan, we would end up opening a Pandora’s box of agitation. Earlier attempts to impose Urdu resulted in the Bangla Bhasha Ondolan movement (1955-1971). Locals taunted Urdu-speaking families of migrants. Language riots took place in Sindh during 1971-1972.
Learning English can offer opportunities to the poor to be able to earn a decent livelihood, both at home and abroad. English facilitates the use of technology. There is little use of Urdu-based technology at home and abroad. We should also remember that the popularity of a language rises or falls along with a country’s place in the international community. Historically, English, French, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese had been languages of imperialistic states. Shifts in power triggered shifts in the status of languages. English held sway as it dominated commercial, scientific and technological fields. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan understood the link between the power elites and language. Britain and France insisted upon enforcing English and French in their respective colonies. During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi. Hong Kong’s effervescence for Mandarin is due to China’s rise. When, in around 2050, China displaces the US as the premier global power, English is likely to give way to Mandarin as the world’s new lingua franca. This means that besides English, we should be learning and promoting Mandarin in our school system to woo Chinese investment in our country.
Amjed Jaaved
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2015.
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