As medium of instruction at school levels
In this globalised, capitalist world, the aim and purpose of education seems only to produce more and more skilled labour. However, the genuine aim of education seems to be a bit deviant from this capitalistic need. Education is meant to build cognitive abilities and crop reason or critical thinking which eventually help a person in differentiating between right and wrong. The cognitive abilities and critical thinking that education breeds ultimately help to create an ethical system which tends to produce an empathetic human society. So, surely the basic purpose of education is quite opposite to what states, generally, try to reap out with their fascist behaviours. Purposeful education can only be attained when the system of education is in harmony with the native language because only native language can instill what education wants to implant.
The greatest gift that the human beings have is language. Psychologists and linguists believe that human beings do not learn but acquire language. The acquisition takes place partly through genetics and environment. And a child acquires language in the very beginning of his/her years. Interesting fact about the human beings is that a child is born with an inbuilt linguistic device through which he/she can acquire language in the early years. Though the linguistic device is like an empty slate on which any language can be written, yet it works well if the caregivers and formal surrounding of the child help to acquire the native language. If a child remains devoid of acquiring native language as mother tongue, the child fails to become a linguistically competent member of family and community and loses the ability to connect with the cultural heritage.
In the world there are about six hundred languages but education systems rarely take into account linguistic diversity and focus only on the dominant languages and cultures. It causes multiple harms to the child’s cognitive abilities and learning capacity. A child imbibes language through the formal and informal environment. This means that the child encounters native language more often and thus has the chances of acquiring native language more easily and naturally. Any turbulence in the process can cause comprehension disorder for the child. If the parents or the caregivers of the child try to make him/her imbibe some language that is being taught at schools and not spoken in cultural surroundings or if the primary language at school is different from that of the environment a child is living in, the child, in most of the cases, becomes a silent spectator. The whole educational process becomes a monologue for a child. In third world societies illiteracy is a major problem. However, due to globalisation and urbanisation a lot of parents even in the third world societies are now interested in educating their children. But a drawback of not teaching the children in native language is that the illiterate parents are automatically excluded from the process of educating a child. Such an exclusive educational model is not only capitalistic but also colonial and neo-colonial in its innate which further strengthens the roots of John Dewey’s class based educational model.
In Punjab, there is no option of teaching children in Punjabi at school level while in KPK and Sind children have the option of being taught in Sindhi and Pashto
When we look at the case of Pakistan’s educational system, it is no different from that of any other colonial society. English became the most dominant language and is a major medium of our formal instruction at school and higher levels. After partition it became a major barometer to divide social classes. After English another major medium of instruction is Urdu which is not at all a native language of any region in Pakistan yet is the medium of instruction in most of the schools at primary level. Urdu, too, is a yardstick to measure the social status of the citizens of Pakistan, especially in Punjab. The most striking and interesting fact is that whenever a voice has been raised to abolish English as medium of instruction, Urdu is considered as an automatic alternative medium of instruction.
The case of Urdu as medium of instruction is even more complex in Pakistan. In Punjab, there is no option of teaching children in Punjabi at school level while in KPK and Sind children have the option of being taught in Sindhi and Pashto. Imposition of Urdu as medium of instruction is a result of fascist and neo-colonial behaviour of the state. Having historical roots in Pakistan movement, Urdu is seen as an extension of Pakistan’s ideology and “National Security” narrative. So, any efforts to make native languages and especially Punjabi as medium of instruction were seen as a threat to “Pakistan’s Ideology”, “National Unity” and “National Security”. Ironically, the province which has remained in the most dominating position in Pakistan since its birth has itself been the major reason of depriving its locals of their native language in schools. Although every martial law tried to eliminate the discourse on native languages, Zia’s era played the most vital role by reinforcing Urdu an issue of Islamic identity. Zia’s policies, and the Punjabi elite, created such a euphoria that Punjabis themselves started looking down upon their language even more vehemently. Consequently, a class based, confused and irrational educational system came into being. The teachers at public schools, the students and the parents can neither fully comprehend nor imbibe both English and Urdu yet they seem to be clinging to these languages.
Whatever changes we want to bring in our educational system shall remain futile until we start a genuine discourse on the importance of native languages as medium of instruction at schools. Giving space to native languages as optional subjects at higher levels remains a useless effort since the child completes his/her comprehension process by that time. If we want our educational system to be more inclusive and purposeful, it has to give way to native languages as medium of instruction at school levels.