I was really disappointed to learn the discriminatory behaviour of the administrations of the English schools towards their staff of Urdu teachers. They think that every Tom, Dick and Harry can teach Urdu subject at a school level. They prefer to employ those who ask meagre salaries, no matter even if their pronunciation is not up to the mark, let alone having a degree of graduation or masters in Urdu. The parents of the children also give little attention to what their children are learning and by whom they are taught on account of their Urdu subject. This is for the simple reason that such school administrations are not fulfilling their duties towards the national language of Pakistan.
I interact on and off with many research colleagues of mine who also teach for earning a living besides carrying out a research. One of my research colleague says that when she was appointed in an English school, her predecessor was telling her school children the masculine of vixen as lombra (fox) as she neither had experience of teaching Urdu nor did she have degree in Urdu at any level. The predecessor also made many mistakes in teaching her children concerning distinguishing masculine and feminine of Urdu nouns.
The Urdu teachers feel also humiliated and their monthly salaries are not incremented at the year-end in proportion to their counterparts. When asked for the meagre salary raised, they administrations are of the view that the raise they offer is quite enough to their utility as the Urdu teachers are found every nook and cranny.
In this regard, I suggest the parents in particular to be watchful of their children what they are learning about Urdu. Urdu language has produced a great literature. If the parents do not prove to be touchy, enjoying a great literature ever produced by any language all over the world would remain a dream for their children. The parents must pay heed to the Urdu subject as they pay to any other subject of their children.
The administration of such school should avoid taking the Urdu subject and its language for granted and encourage as much the Urdu teachers as they do to any teachers of other subjects. Discrimination against Urdu by the ruling elite has been proverbial. The administrations of such schools also seem to follow the path of their ruling elites. A research must be carried out to know how much these administrations are biased against Urdu.
JAWED AHMED KHURSHEED
Karachi
