Teaching Sindhi: Education dept to hold meetings with CIE, AKU education board

No notification issued to make Sindhi compulsory, says spokesperson.

KARACHI: The officials of the Sindh education department will hold meetings with the representatives of the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and Aga Khan University Examinations Board (AKU-EB) after Eidul Azha, asking them to comply with the government directives to teach Sindhi as a compulsory subject.

“The two private educational boards, due to major differences in their curriculum with the one that is being taught at the public schools, have made no headway in this regard,” said the spokesperson for Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro on Tuesday. “Rest of the private schools have already given Sindhi the status of a compulsory subject.”



Earlier, Khuhro told The Express Tribune that the education department’s directives were in line with the laws of the government and the resolutions of the Sindh Assembly. “The assembly in 1972 had passed an act under which it was compulsory  to teach Sindhi from grade one to grade eight,” he said, adding that a few years ago, a resolution calling for the implementation of the act was also passed.

The minister when inquired about implication of the directives on schools affiliated with the private education boards, including the CIE and the AKU-EB, said that these schools also had to register with the directorate of the private institutions. “By virtue of this fact, they are required to make Sindhi language a part of the syllabus as all private schools are bound to follow the rules and regulations made by the provincial government,” he said, warning that registration of the schools which fail to comply will be revoked.

When contacted, the AKU-EB spokesperson said that the education board had not received any notification from the Sindh government in this connection so far. “Currently, the subject is examined at the SSC-level - both in grade nine and grade 10 - at many of the affiliated schools which have opted to offer it,” said the spokesperson. “It depends on the affiliated schools whether they offer it as a subject or not.” Meanwhile, an official at the British Council Pakistan, which administers the CIE exams across the country, said though the CIE does not want to undermine the importance of regional languages, it was not their policy to offer them as a compulsory subject.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.