Urdu or English? The CSS conflict

A petition filed by Advocate Saif Ur Rehman, the court ruled that the CSS examinations should be conducted in Urdu language as the decision given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The court remarked that due to the shortage of time, it was not able to implement the order for CSS exams in 2017 which are due by the end of the current month, the examination should be conducted in Urdu from next year.

So in a country where, from primary to secondary till higher education, every educational data is in English and that country is trying to convert CSS examination into Urdu is bit of an irony and complete conflict. All the reading lists recommended by Universities for their degree courses and by FPSC for CSS are comprised of books written in English by foreign writers. Are the candidates supposed to get education in English, prepare for CSS through books written in English and then translate all that in Urdu by themselves? In order to carry out this reconstruction, first of all, the whole educational system should be revamped by converting every existing living data from English into Urdu. Afterwards, you have to start doing research work in Urdu. It is a waste of time of our judiciary to listen to these futile petitions. The country wants to produce individuals who can compete across the world. Knowing and speaking English is a need of the hour. We should make our preliminary school teaching better rather than turning a relatively better standard exam’s medium into Urdu. FPCS have positions including the foreign services, how is Urdu ever going to be beneficial for those who are allocated this category? How can someone appear in Urdu examination if he hasn’t written Urdu for 8-10 years as the education system from kindergarten to graduate level uses English as a medium of instruction to teach subjects ranging from Physics, Mathematics, and Political Science to Philosophy? It is beyond logical comprehension to conduct exams in Urdu while all of the recommended books are written by foreign authors in English. Terminology used in respective books is unknown in Urdu. Being our national language and our medium of communication, Urdu is respected from the heart but one must consider the needs of the students and candidates appearing in such examinations, their call should be heard. Time should be given to CSS aspirants to make decisions as one year is not enough and it should be optional as per as candidate’s wish to appear in exams with his/her own choice of language.

Sana Ali Bhutto

Karachi