Language-teaching Policies in Pakistan

2017

The shifts and gaps in English language policies and medium of instruction have always been a hurdle in the achievement of English language and overall education goals in Pakistan. This situation has raised a continuous debate on language-in-education policy and medium of instruction in Pakistan since independence and Pakistani governments to date have been indecisive regarding this. This chaotic situation has caused a great setback to the education system in Pakistan. To understand the issues and challenges pertaining Pakistan's English language education, this paper presents a historical perspective of Pakistan's language in education policy. This paper concludes that there is a dire need of discarding the obsolete colonial language policies and formulating effective language-in-education policy for the achievement of language education goals and ultimately the education goals for the better future of the country. The first step to achieve this goal is to provide Pakistani...

2016

The issue of language in Pakistan is not just related to linguistics. It has far more implications for cultural, economic, political, and social dimensions of Pakistani society. The current paper studies the latest language policy of Pakistan and its implications for local languages. It then relates to the formation and implementation of a (certain steps) feasible language policy to root out the conflicts and ethnic clashes from time to time in the country, and discusses ways to survive the language shock of majority of students in Pakistan, who are taught English as compulsory subject up to 14 years of education despite the puzzling phenomenon of cultural aversive attitudes towards English language by the masses. The employed teaching methods and curriculum in the institutions of Pakistan, for decades, have only been successful in maintaining the gap between the privileged English speaking people and the hardcore anti-English sentiments. In this battle for linguistic-identity crisi...

Language in India, 2017

The shifts and gaps in English language policies and medium of instruction have always been a hurdle in the achievement of English language and overall education goals in Pakistan. This situation has raised a continuous debate on language-in-education policy and medium of instruction in Pakistan since independence and Pakistani governments to date have been indecisive regarding this. This chaotic situation has caused a great setback to the education system in Pakistan. To understand the issues and challenges pertaining Pakistan's English language education, this paper presents a historical perspective of Pakistan's language in education policy. This paper concludes that there is a dire need of discarding the obsolete colonial language policies and formulating effective language-in-education policy for the achievement of language education goals and ultimately the education goals for the better future of the country. The first step to achieve this goal is to provide Pakistani students with equal opportunities to learn English and have access to learning in English medium.

2015

The issue of language in Pakistan is not just related to linguistics. It has far more implications for cultural, economic, political, and social dimensions of Pakistani society. The current paper studies the latest language policy of Pakistan and its implications for local languages. It then relates to the formation and implementation of a (certain steps) feasible language policy to root out the conflicts and ethnic clashes from time to time in the country, and discusses ways to survive the language shock of majority of students in Pakistan, who are taught English as compulsory subject up to 14 years of education despite the puzzling phenomenon of cultural aversive attitudes towards English language by the masses. The employed teaching methods and curriculum in the institutions of Pakistan, for decades, have only been successful in maintaining the gap between the privileged English speaking people and the hardcore anti-English sentiments. In this battle for linguisticidentity crisis and supremacy, a lot of national talent has been wasted. This paper briefly reexplores the situation of languages in the country on the first step, and then it moves on to focus on the national policy, its flaws, and it possible ways out by bringing in examples from Chinese and Indian Language Policies.

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1997

Pakistan has five major indigenous languages -Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Siraiki and Baluchi -while the national language is Urdu. The language used in the domains of power (like the higher bureaucracy, and the officer corps of the armed forces) is English, as it was during British rule. This paper traces the controversy about the medium of instruction in Pakistan, beginning with the use of English for elitist education in pre-partition days. This policy was meant to consolidate the empire because the English-educated Anglicised elite would support British rule in its own interest. The masses were taught, at the lower levels, in the vernacular -which was taken to be Urdu in all the provinces except Sind, where Sindhi was used. This policy produced office workers in subordinate positions at low cost. In present-day Pakistan, too, the elite are educated in expensive English-medium schools, whereas Urdu is used in most other schools, including those of urban Sind which have majorities of mother-tongue Urdu speakers. This medium of instruction policy is opposed by the indigenously educated (the Urdu-medium) proto-elite, who would find entry into positions of power easier if Urdu was used and nobody was educated in English.

The focus of this discussion is the latest language policy in Pakistan, suggested in 2009. The theme of " divide and rule " has been an essential part of language policy in Pakistan through the colonialist role of English during the colonial period as well as the post-independence period. We have analyzed the role of proposed language in NEP (National Education Policy), 2009 in terms of educational divide. The conclusion of this discussion is that teaching in mother tongue for primary education can be successfully implemented. It will help minimize dropout level and help children in their educational careers at the same time. A strategy for the development of English language teaching in Pakistan has also been suggested in this paper. This strategy has been outlined, keeping in view the objectives of the NEP and the available resources. Introduction In the colonial period (1857-1947), English was introduced in Education as a key to join civil service and to promote educated elite class that shared the interests of the British in the Indo-Pak sub-continent. After independence in 1947, the ruling class in Pakistan carried forward the colonial legacy with an over-developed, exclusive English-medium education for the elite, but on the other hand, an Urdu or vernacular-medium education was introduced for the masses. The post-independence era, has a strong nationalist current to constructs Pakistan as a nation unified by one language: Urdu. The national unity of Pakistan feels threatened by more than one languages, as it happened in the case of East Pakistan (Bangal) by declaring Urdu as the national language and omitting Bangla as an important state language. However, the making of Bangladesh as an independent state in 1971 resolved the Urdu-Bengali controversy. The dilemma of this situation was the complexity of identifying a national language between four provincial languages, English as the colonial legacy, Arabic as an Islamic identity and Urdu as a symbol of newly found Muslim nationalism. This in place was complicated by the 1973 Constitution which declared Urdu (the national language), to be the official language within fifteen years, and English would be the de facto official language, until arrangements could be made to implement the constitution. The time frame of fifteen years stipulated for Urdu to become the official language has passed since long. English is still language of power. This policy of differentiating between those that can afford it and those that cannot, creates a similar divide that was created between the colonizer and the colonized. English is for the elite ruling class and Urdu and other regional languages are for masses. This distinction in education system is a powerful marker of social privileges and power distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan's commitment to use Urdu as the medium of instruction in its state schools is evident from the whole national history of sixty-five years. Pakistan is ambitious to provide an easy access to English language learning at the same time. This two dimensional policy, itself, is a barrier to an effective education system. The most recent National Education Policy 2009, has proposed to promote the country's main regional languages as the medium of instruction. The aim is to include the poorest in the mainstream education and skill development system to alleviate poverty. The total Population; in Pakistan was last reported to be 176745364 in 2011(World Bank report, 2012). The population of Pakistan is not only very large but it is very young as well. One third of the population is aged 0-14 years. 8th half the population is under 20, and two thirds are under 30. So almost half of the population is of school age. Pakistan has an economically divided society. Sixty percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. The top ten percent of the population, holds more than a quarter(26.5%) of the state income. The language policy for schools, inherited from the British rule, is badly effecting the state education. The economic divide can

The struggle for a separate homeland for the Muslims of India before the partition in 1947 was based on the Two Nation Theory that advocated the concept of Muslim nationhood embedded in religion. At that time the notion of nationhood in Europe was mostly based on language, culture and territory. In order to convince the world to buy the idea of this nationhood the advocates of Muslims needed a single language as well. This they found in the form of Urdu. Thus before Pakistan’s existence Urdu had been made a marker of Muslim nationalism in India. Being anomalous with the general notion of nationalism prevailing in the era of ‘modernity’ the religion-based concept of nationhood was confusing for the Muslims, too. This created an ambiguity which has been haunting Pakistan since its inception. This confusion is reflected in all the attempts of making education policies in Pakistan, too. In Pakistan, the official language policy demonstrates a strong commitment to Urdu in favour of regional languages but stays ambiguous regarding the relative status of Urdu and English. (Tamim, 2014, p. 9). A major challenge faced by the education policy makers in Pakistan was the choice of language and its central role in the process of learning and achievement of education pursuits. (Siddiqui, 2016: 133). Language remained a contested issue even after the independence of the country, giving birth to a number of questions. (Siddiqui, 2016: 133). Shahid Siddiqui, in his recently published book—Education Policies in Pakistan—by the Oxford University Press says that a number of questions such as: what should be the state language of the country? What would be the status of English? How would the provincial languages/regional languages by represented in the policy? What language should be used as medium of instruction? And which language should be kept compulsory in teaching at the educational institutions has haunted Pakistan since its birth in 1947.

The issue of language in Pakistan is not just related to linguistics. It has far more implications for cultural, economic, political, and social dimensions of Pakistani society. The current paper studies the latest language policy of Pakistan and its implications for local languages. It then relates to the formation and implementation of a (certain steps) feasible language policy to root out the conflicts and ethnic clashes from time to time in the country, and discusses ways to survive the language shock of majority of students in Pakistan, who are taught English as compulsory subject up to 14 years of education despite the puzzling phenomenon of cultural aversive attitudes towards English language by the masses. The employed teaching methods and curriculum in the institutions of Pakistan, for decades, have only been successful in maintaining the gap between the privileged English speaking people and the hardcore anti-English sentiments. In this battle for linguistic-identity crisis and supremacy, a lot of national talent has been wasted. This paper briefly re-explores the situation of languages in the country on the first step, and then it moves on to focus on the national policy, its flaws, and it possible ways out by bringing in examples from Chinese and Indian Language Policies. Povzetek Dileme jezika v Pakistanu niso povezane samo z jezikoslovjem. Njihove posledice je čutiti na kulturnem, ekonomskem, političnem in socialnem področju pakistanske družbe. Članek natančno pregleda trenutno jezikovno politiko v Pakistanu in njen vpliv na lokalne jezike. Naveže se na oblikovanje in uvedbo tistega dela jezikovne politike, ki bi kar najbolj izkoreninil med-etnične konflikte. Obenem se dotakne obveznega 14-letnega učenja angleščine v šolah, ki se otepa splošnega ljudskega odpora, saj naj bi le povečeval razlike med priviligiranim slojem angleško-govorečih in preostalimi. V boju za jezikovno identiteto in prevlado je bilo precej izgubljenega. Članek tako prevetri jezikovno situacijo in razmišlja o nacionalni jezikovni politiki ter o jezikovnih politikah na Kitajskem in v Indiji, katerih ideje bi bilo moč privzeti. Ključne besede: jezikovna politika; etničnost; averzivni pogled; jezikovna identiteta; proti-angleška čustva

International Journal of English Linguistics, 2018

This paper examines the language teaching policy in Pakistan and its consequences on Sindhi language in Sindh province. The paper argues that such language policy has attempted to marginalize other local and indigenous languages of the country in general and Sindhi language in particular. Politics is actively engaged in determining the status of languages in the country. English and Urdu being the languages of the dominant social group, that is, the ruling elite in the country enjoy status of official and national languages respectively whereas languages of the marginalized group are excluded from the domain of education, literacy and power. The paper, thus, draws attention of the language policy makers to linguistic human rights and argues that all the languages should be treated equally. Education being inborn right of human being should be acquired in one's own mother tongue; this is the only solution to cope with present and future challenges in Pakistani educational system.