Language and literacy in Pakistan

Despite the advancement in every field of education in Pakistan, the standard of education is swinging around its literacy rate which has been slowly creeping from 14% to 58% during the developing years of Pakistan. According to UNESCO Pakistan was targeted to reach 80% of its literacy rate by last year, which is unachievable so far. The multilingual society system in the country demands the wider use of regional languages along with the English and Urdu as medium of instruction. The big challenge posed by the country’s education system for education aspirants is language barrier in reaching the standards of required literacy rate.

The world’s standard of literacy is “the ability to read and write”. And in a country like Pakistan, which has number of regional languages, an adult from any region or province has to struggle to cope with the foreign or non-native language learning process for the acquisition of education. One has to learn English to get admitted in famous institutions for higher education, and Urdu to get to the national forums. Unfortunately, there’s no value left for adult’s mother tongue outside a home. Inaccessibility of education in some areas and to some adults will not only impede the advancement in education and development of civilization and cultural but also decrease the literacy rate in relation to the growing population of Pakistan.

Consequently, government should promote the multilingual education system to provide easy and equal access to every Pakistani. This education system will make education approachable and it will also open opportunities for employment in other sectors too. The government should empower the status of regional languages with their inclusion in policies of education. Inclusion of regional languages in educational policies would certainly help raising the literacy rate of country simultaneously promoting the cultural and archaeological worth of different societies of Pakistan.

MEMOONA KHALIQ

Rawalpindi