International Mother Language Day: Participants stress on need to impart education in native tongue

PESHAWAR:

Speakers at a seminar on Mother Tongue Instruction and Inclusive Education underscored the need to impart education in the mother tongue on Tuesday.

Participants including native speakers of endangered languages, appreciated the government for establishing the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Language Authority and called for the inclusion of local communities in policy formulation.

The speakers said there was growing awareness about the preservation and documentation of indigenous languages, compared to the past.

Speaking on the occasion,  Farzana Mehboob, a representative of the K-P Textbook Board told the meeting that the board introduced Pashto as the medium of instruction across the province.

“From next year, four other languages will be introduced as the medium of instruction in schools.”

She said that local communities will be taught in Hindko, Seraiki, Khowar and Indus Kohistani for which courses, and curriculum will be prepared within a year.

She asked language communities to come forward with practical suggestions.

President Mother Tongue and Heritage for Education and Research (MOTHER) Inamullah said preference for one’s language and culture was considered treason in the past. “Regionalism should be promoted for development.”

MOTHER aims to work for the preservation and promotion of languages in the age of globalisation. “The organisation is focusing on enabling native speakers of languages and dialects threatened with extinction to write in their mother tongue and training the youth from local communities in curriculum development.

Senior member of Gandhara Hindko Board (GHB) Sharafat Ali Mubarak said native languages should be spoken at home to encourage children to adopt them.

Rozi Khan Burki, an Orumri activist from the South Waziristan asked the government to help relocate all Burki IDPs to Kaniguram, their native town. He said not a single person was living there and the displacement had seriously threatened their language.

K-P Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Afan Aziz underscored the importance of promoting the mother tongue for the individual’s self-confidence.

Participants demanded the government to include all languages in NADRA forms, as only Urdu and major regional languages are listed. The conference was arranged by the GHB and MOTHER, an umbrella organisation comprising of all language communities in K-P and northern areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2012.