Expectations from the mother tongue
By:Sher Alam Shinwari
24.10.2010 KhyberNews, PESHAWAR:
Language plays a vital role in shaping the outlook and aspirations of people. Being an identity marker it brings out the original and natural characteristics of a nation by manifesting a culture, psyche, history, societal norms, beliefs and social fabric.
Unless all these aspects of a people´s life can be fully satisfied, their progress in any way shall remain stagnant and hampered. The mother tongue is a wonderful vehicle for translating every kind of human expression originating from the human mind. Educational psychologists, academics and language experts all agree that a child can be educated in the best manner in the mother tongue. Proving this fact, there are many practical examples of nations who have excelled in every sphere of life in the modern hi-tech world.
Unfortunately our educational policy makers remain divided and confused on the language issue to the extent that they ignored altogether the importance of a mother tongue in its real academic perspective. The medium of instruction, with the passage of time, was politicised and even manipulated for the sake of ethnic and linguistic divisions. Experts say it should have been the other way around — languages should be used for creating national harmony and unity in diversity rather than creating rifts on ethnic lines.
As per recommendations of the committee formed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet, Pushto will be included as a compulsory subject in 17 districts, from Class I to XII, while in the remaining seven districts they would include the mother tongue as a compulsory subject in the curriculum.
It has been decided that Pushto as a compulsory subject would be introduced in 17 districts including Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla, Malakand, Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram. Mother tongues would be introduced in the remaining seven districts in class six from the next academic year 2011 to 2012.
Pushto and other mother tongues including Hindko, Seraiki and Khowar will be included as a compulsory subject in class seven (2012-13), class eight (2013-14), class IX (2014-15), class X (2015-16), First Year (2016-17) and Second Year (2017-18).
Besides nine districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir (upper and lower), Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla and Malakand, where Pushto is already being taught as a compulsory subject since 1984 in classes one to five, it will also be introduced as a compulsory subject in another eight districts, including Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Battagram, from the next academic year (2011-12). Other mother tongues will be included as compulsory subjects in the remaining seven districts from the next academic year (2011-12) in classes one to five.
The meeting also decided to look into the bifurcation of Peshawar district into urban and rural areas. In urban areas the relevant mother tongue and in rural areas Pushto will be introduced as a compulsory subject. Meanwhile, Mathematics and Science subjects will be taught in English.
But the question is whether introducing the mother tongue as a medium of instruction will help improve our educational standards and decrease the high dropout rate at the primary level?
Renowned psychiatrist and former principal of the erstwhile Khyber Medical College (KMC), Peshawar, Prof Dr Khalid Mufti in his remarks said that the step would have a far-reaching and positive impact on the children as they always think in the mother tongue because their natural thought process has been built that way. Imposing any other thought process on them results in boredom and confusion. Children can best express themselves in the mother tongue, he observed, while adding that the change was started when the British academia decided to introduce English as a medium of instruction in India when they would stress on the students to think in English.
Senior writer and Chairman World Pushto Conference Saleem Raz, while sharing his views, said that making the mother tongue a medium of instruction is not the only step to be taken for the improvement of academic performance at the primary level. The government, too, should take concrete measures to ensure quality contents and effective teaching in schools.
´´Implementation of polices has always been an issue. We come up with things that look good on paper but which add up to zilch when it comes to practicality. Making use of the mother tongue will make the children culturally sound. Right now they are even unaware of our national heroes, our history and social norms, which is also why our golden traditions and institutions such as the hujra are fading away,´´ he pointed out.
Mr Raz said that our youth may be well aware of the latest chart-topping music in the West but they don´t know a thing about local music and our own musical maestros. They can abundantly quote Shakespeare but won’t know a single line from the works of Rahman Baba or Khushhal Khan Khattak. ´´I am not a linguist chauvinist, I just want to say that our youth should know their own cultural identity first,´´ he said.
Chairman Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Text Board, Prof Dr Fazal Rahim Marwat, said that all the recommendations for making the respective mother tongues compulsory in 25 districts had been prepared for forwarding to the provincial assembly for necessary legislations while adding that the textbooks were being prepared in Pushto, Hindko, Khowar, Kohistani and Seraiki languages.
The geography was linked to history that would make students aware of our national icons and their contributions to the country.
He hoped that the mother tongue would make a significant difference at the primary level and also at the intermediate stage where the students would come to know about their social history and cultural background. Dr Rahim also said that the issue of unified accents and scripts of different languages spoken in various target areas would be resolved soon.
Prominent educationist Ruh-ul-Amin, however, holds a different opinion. He said that the mother tongue would not make any difference to quality education. Rather it would further aggravate the situation.
´´The mother tongue can be used as a teaching aid and not as medium of instruction. Yes, it can be made a compulsory subject till the eighth grade though it would add to the miseries of students who are already overburdened with heavy school bags,´´ he pointed out.
Also, he maintained that there were differences in various accents of the same language. For instance, he recalled that in 1984, when Pushto was declared as a medium of instruction in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some people burnt down textbooks meant for primary classes in the Bannu district because they were written in hard Yousafzai Pushto whereas they spoke soft southern Kandahari Pushto.
Prof Dr Rajwali Shah Khattak, director of the Centre for Pushto Language and Literature at the University of Peshawar, concluded that the mother tongue would solve many of our problems as it is a window to our own rich culture, history and folklore. Encompassing our past, it would inspire our talented children, reduce the dropout rate and make us feel proud of our own identity. He said that imparting education to children in the mother tongue is a universally recognized fact and making it a medium of instruction at the primary level should be appreciated as it would lead to a qualitative change in the way of learning.
The writer teaches English at Peshawar Public school & college Warsak Road Peshawar.
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