Language tyranny

SINCE an education emergency was declared in Pakistan — for the second time — education has entered the public discourse with a bang. Seminars are being held frequently while the media has been addressing the issue much more than before. But nothing is changing on the ground. In this bleak scenario, comes a heartwarming announcement.
Baela Raza Jamil, the dynamic CEO of Idara-i-Taaleem-o-Agahi (ITA) has been awarded the Global Education Medal for the Asian region. It is to Baela’s credit that she is one of the rare ones in the education sector in Pakistan who has walked the talk and her undertakings have had an impact on millions.
She launched the Pakistan Learning Festival that has been an informal learning experience for thousands of children since 2011. She set up ASER (Pakistan) in 2008 to test children’s learning outcome all over the country. Of late, she has made her debut as a publisher of children’s books. What is important is her inclusive approach vis-à-vis the indigenous languages in her scheme of things.
It is unfortunate that Baela’s recommendations on various educational problems have failed to move our policymakers with whom she has constantly engaged. An issue that has bothered me for decades now — Baela understands my concern — is that of the language of education. It appears that government, society, educationists, school managers and even parents have joined hands to ‘tyrannise’ the child and sacrifice the joys of childhood at the ‘altar of the English language’.
Some government functionaries and academics now discreetly concede that an overwhelming majority of teachers are not proficient in English and that affects their pedagogic performance. Yet no initiative has been taken to change the ambivalent language policy that is in place.
Neither is there any advocacy campaign to create awareness of the stupidity of imposing the English language on young children in the initial phase of their schooling. Not being familiar with it they are overawed by it. If the mother tongue or the language of the environment is used in early childhood and a few years of primary education, children will find school to be a friendly and welcoming place. The transition to another language will be painless when the change-over is gradual and takes place at an appropriate stage when the student is psychologically and mentally ready for it.
There is something seriously wrong with the hybrid pedagogy which allows the teacher to speak in Urdu, while the books are in English, and the students are expected to speak, read and write in English. This pattern will continue until the language factor is taken into account. It may be added that the child will be dumbed and will rote learn and never be able to think critically.
The fact is that we are regressing. Until last year, Sindh had, relatively speaking, a sane language in education policy: the medium of instruction in all public sector schools was Sindhi and Urdu in areas inhabited by Sindhi and Urdu speakers respectively. Each community learned the other’s language as a compulsory second language. The private schools, however, were inadvisably left to their own devices.
Today, under the unwritten orders of a district education officer, English is the medium of instruction in specified public sector schools in District South of Karachi. We shall never know about the disastrous impact of this policy because the ever-obliging examination board is infamous for producing desired results that are not a valid assessment of candidates.
As a consequence, education has lost all credibility. The focus is now on qua­ntity. The 26 million out-of-school child­ren in Pakistan have become a scourge for the country. Pa­­radoxically in this dismal scenario, lan-guage — the divider between the rich and the poor — finds no mention. And it will not. Our neoliberals and their backers know very well that the fast-growing inequity in our society has been spawned by our market-driven education system in which the rich attend upscale elite schools while the poor go to the tottering public sector and low-fee private institutions which cannot teach English. Who benefits from this class-ridden system? Of course the neo-liberals, who thrive in the globalised world of today.
We cannot say we have not been warned. One has to read Robert Phillipson (Linguistic Imperialism), Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed), Antonio Gramsci’s views on language and education, and of course, Dr Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind).
Those in a position of power have also managed to create a paradoxical condition of coercion and consent that ensures that there is no public resistance to the language policy in vogue.
Advocates of children’s language rights stand isolated.
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Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024