02 October 2004	Saturday	16 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Oct 1: Speakers at the inaugural session of a conference on English on Friday stressed that a nation could not progress in real sense or keep itself abreast fully with latest developments around the globe unless it gave due importance to English language.

They described English as a major communication link, indicating that "all major research work is in English." The three-day 20th SPELT international conference has been organized jointly by the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT), National Committee on English, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and British Council. Experts from more than 12 countries are to speak on Innovative Teachers: Agents of Change.

Speaking at the opening session, Sindh Education Minister Dr Hameeda Khuhro, describing English as the most popular and widely-used mode of international communication, said that plans were afoot to accord this language due importance and place in the country's education system.

She expressed her desire that the primary education be simplified. Youngsters should be taught their mother tongue and English, with another language, being second or third language, she said, adding that the other subject should be arithmetic. In secondary level, they could be taught other important subjects.

The minister referred to population explosion and insufficient funds available for the education sector, and said that due to this situation, the quality of education in Pakistan was on the decline for years.

She pointed out that many private schools have mushroomed in urban centres but education in these institutions appeared very costly and out of the reach of common citizen.

Besides, she said, majority of our population lived in rural areas which did not have such private schools. Therefore, the government was endeavouring to improve education standard at public sector schools, she said.

Ms Khuhro, however, stressed that besides funds and planning, commitment of teachers to their profession and students, was equally or all the more important. This, she observed, lacked nowadays, unfortunately.

Referring to certain issues, raised by some speakers, with regard to reviewing of books, SPELT arrears against the government, etc., the minister held out the assurance that she would look into them.

Jane Willis of the University of Auston (UK), in her keynote address on Waves of the Future in ELT: Areas for Innovation and Change, said that teachers were needed to take a much closer look at the language they taught.

She also discussed: a more sharply focused need analysis; the use of specifically-tailored corpora for syllabus and course design; the identification and analysis of lexical patterns and chunks that provide a link between vocabulary and grammar; the need for more emphasis on teaching aspects of spoken language; etc.

Some other speakers, earlier, pointed out that electronic media invasion had resulted into a gradual decline in people's reading habit, which needed to be restored. Teachers would have to work hard for the purpose, they said, adding that easy availability of good quality books at an affordable price was another prerequisite for reviving the habit.

They said that the SPELT, since its establishment more than 20 years back, had been organizing various training programmes for the professional growth of English language teachers to keep them abreast with the latest teaching methods being used around the globe.

They suggested that text books and examination system needed to be reviewed and updated for students' inclination to education. One of the speakers said that the SPELT, on the government's request, had reviewed the text books from class VIII to class XII but the government appeared not ready yet to get the revised books.

British Council Director Charlie Walker, Fatima Shahabuddin and Khalida Sa'adat also spoke at the conference. Experts from US, UK, Australia, Spain, Japan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and UAE are participating in the conference. Similar conferences have been scheduled for Oct 8-10 at Lahore and Islamabad where as workshops would be held at Abbotabad, Multan and Sukkur.