LAHORE: The Punjab government’s bid to change the medium of instruction at all its public sector schools has got the students into hot water.

Some five years ago, the Punjab School Education Department decided that the medium of instruction in all existing public sector schools would be English instead of Urdu.

The decision was aimed at introducing a uniform education system for all the children by bringing public sector schools on a part with the private institutions in the province.

There was an option that the schools would gradually switch over to English medium. Initially, the medium of instruction was to be bilingual and all the schools were to hold classes both in Urdu and English languages. Free textbooks of all subjects for all classes were to be printed and supplied in both the languages to the students.

However, some three years ago the department decided all of a sudden that the medium of instruction would only be in English language.

No training for teachers who force students to buy Urdu version of books

Furthermore, directions were issued that the names of schools on the main gate must be in English as well as the words ‘English medium’ must also be mentioned there. The directions had been complied with.

Ironically, neither any concrete measures were taken to materialise the ambitious plan nor factors like teachers’ motivation, training and accountability, schools’ resources, curriculum, parents’ education were considered.

So far neither any training courses were initiated for the capacity building of on duty SSTs, ESTs and PSTs nor new educators recruited.

However, students started getting free textbooks of general mathematics, general science, general knowledge, physics, chemistry, biology and computer sciences etc. only in English language from their institutions.

Since a majority of the existing teachers had been unable to explain the curricula in English language, they started forcing the students to purchase the Urdu version of these books from the open market which cost Rs200 to Rs1,000 a child.

Such instances have also emerged that the poor students who received free books in English language couldn’t purchase their Urdu version even till the end of their academic session which affected their performance in the examinations, forcing many students to opt for leaving their institutions.

At present, the number of drop-outs is negligible but it may convert into an alarming proportion, making it impossible to attain the education for all targets under the millennium development goals.

A senior academician argues that the best medium for early education is the mother language or the one a child is naturally exposed to his or her social environment.

“English language is not the medium of instruction in China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France and other developed countries. The successive governments did take steps to promote higher education but ignored the primary section. Let us decide once and for all which language will be the medium of instruction. Let us stop making our children guinea pigs in the education sector,” said the academician, who had been a senior faculty member of the Government College University.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2015

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