Knowing the roots: Four years on, AWKUM without a Pashto department

HEC official says the university needs to fulfil certain criteria before starting the venture.

PESHAWAR:

The Pashto language has taken a backseat at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM), depriving a large number of students from Mardan and adjoining districts from pursuing studies in their native tongue.

Against the university motto, a Pashto language department has yet to be set up in the institute which was established in April 2009. Boards inscribed with the name of the university outside its main campus are in Pashto, so is its website which calls it Abdul Wali Khan Pohantun.

The university has at least 25 departments and nine campuses across the province, but doesn’t offer regular studies at graduate and post-graduate levels in Pashto. As a result, most locals from these areas throng to University of Peshawar for a Pashto degree.



Writer, poet and Government College Katlang Mardan Principal Professor Miraj Khan wrote a preface for a book titled ‘Pukhto: Da Jabo Mor’ (Pashto: the mother of languages) written by Dr Darwaish Yousafzai. In this, he wrote AWKUM had failed to do any service for the promotion of its mother tongue.

“One can gauge the gravity of the situation by the fact that after a lapse of over four years, the university was unable to hire even a single teacher for the purpose,” he added. He also held the previous government led by the Awami National Party responsible, saying they didn’t tire of raising slogans of working for Pukhtun rights, but should have proven themselves by setting up a Pashto department at AWKUM instead.

“The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) adopted a resolution in 1963, urging all governments to take solid steps for the provision of education to students in their mother tongues,” said Professor Khan. “Ignoring Pashto in academics will only give rise to a sense of deprivation among people, which could also create many other social issues.”

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Deputy Director Nasir Shah told The Express Tribune HEC has clear guidelines in this regard, called the ‘cabinet criteria’. He explained degree-awarding universities may open any department, but there are rules to be followed.

Shah said the new department must have a professor, two associate professors, two assistant professors and four lecturers. He added if the above criterion is not met by an institution, their expenditures become a burden on the national exchequer.

He went on to say a university must also check various other aspects, including a market survey in terms of job prospects, national and international literature, etc, before starting a degree programme.

When contacted, AWKUM Registrar Dr Saeed Islam said only three students submitted an application after the university published an advertisement for admissions in Pashto. “There is a need for creating awareness among Pukhtuns regarding the value of their mother tongue.”

On the other hand, University of Peshawar Public Relations Officer Akhtar Amin said 50 to 70 students annually enrol for a master’s programme in Pashto, while the institution has 106 seats in the Pashto Department.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2013.