Although the ANP-led government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has introduced Pashto as compulsory subject in Pashto speaking areas, most of the schools in the province seem reluctant to adopt it as they think it will add to the woes of the students who were already burdened by Urdu, Arabic and English languages.

There is also confusion about dividing Peshawar into rural and urban areas and adopting Pashto as medium of instruction or compulsory subject because in city areas Hindko is a spoken language.

Educationists and experts say regional languages should be taught both as medium of instruction as well as compulsory subject from grade 1 to grade 8 but onwards it should be introduced as an elective subject to those students who read Arts and Humanities and should not be imposed on students interested in selecting Science subjects A prominent private educational institution which runs a chain of Schools and Colleges in Peshawar, Mardan and Charasadda has shown reservations on adopting Pashto as compulsory subject.

In its letter dated May 26, 2012 to the department of Elementary and Secondary Education KP the administration of the School said that providing subject specialists for teaching Pashto language was difficult as compared to other subjects.

Besides, adopting Pashto as compulsory subject would turn the school into a centre of languages, the letter said adding that students were already under big burden of reading too many languages.

A headmaster of a government school at Tehkal Payan pleading anonymity said he did not know whether his area falls in urban or rural category, although this is a majority Pashto speaking area. “Also localities like Hayatabad, Danishabad, Gulbahar and University Town   are part of the urban city where mostly people normally speak Pashto, but it is not clear whether we should start teaching Pashto as compulsory subject or not,” he said.

A well-placed source told this reporter that a huge amount of Rs550 million was allocated for launching of this project but the bureaucrats in the education department were not in favour of execution of this plan. This is the reason they are not interested in follow-up of the project and some of them have even deliberately asked heads of schools to send in their reservations on adopting Pashto/regional languages as compulsory subjects in order to scrape it.

According to the KP government plan the decision is binding on both private and public sector educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but still a large number of schools in private sector don’t seem to implement the project.

Noted educationist and former Principal Islamia Collegiate School Peshawar Ruhul Amin told Dawn: “Pashto as an optional subject was there in KP Schools even in pre- partition era along with Persian and Arabic languages. In 1984, it was adopted as medium of instruction from class 1 to 5 in government-run schools only in nine districts including Swat, Swabi, Bunir, Malakand, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Shangla, Charsadda and Mardan. Keeping in view the issue of identity crisis it was a commendable job on the part of government to introduce Pashto/mother tongues in KP Schools as compulsory subject but it should be restricted only to grade 8.  Children should not be overburdened with learning too many languages.  I believe that continuing English as medium of instruction in today’ fast Information Technological age is a must for us.”

Ali Imran Shakeel, who runs two private Schools in Daudzai area near Peshawar while expressing his reservations on Pashto as compulsory subject told that parents get their children admitted in private schools because of English as medium of instruction as they wanted to see them fluent in English and once they mastered it they could compete in all spheres of life. “I don’t think any parent will get his children admitted in a private school where Pashto is used as medium of instruction. English is the only big difference between private and government run schools. Mother tongue can be better learnt at home from parents and peer groups in streets,” he argued.

According to the government policy, Pashto as compulsory subject is being introduced in 17 out of 25 KP districts - Swat, Swabi, Buner, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Mardan, Charsadda, Shangla, Malakand, Nowshera, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Karak, Bannu, Tank, Kohat and Batagram, and mother tongue as compulsory subject in the remaining seven districts in Class 6 from 2011-12 academic year.

Similarly, Pashto and mother tongue is being included as compulsory subject in Class 7 from 2012-13, class 8 from 2013-14, class 9 from 2014-15, class 10 from 2015-16, First year from 2016-17 and 2nd Year from 2017-18 academic session.  Linguistic diversity is a great asset of this province and experts say adopting mother tongues as compulsory in schools is like preserving local culture first hand.

“I recently carried out a sample survey for my research thesis while selecting 200 Schools each from government and private sectors in different KP districts. Only 3 per cent students of grade 7 and 8 knew about our literary, political and social reformers, 90 per cent failed to write correct alphabetic letters  of their respective mother tongues  and only 5 per cent knew as to who were  Rahman Baba and Khushhal Khan Khattak .This I think is a great loss to our diverse cultural treasure, heritage and history, if our young generation doesn’t   know about our great national heroes how they can preserve it,” maintained Irfan Ali Yousafzai who is doing doctorate from a private University in Peshawar on ‘Cultural representation in the school curriculum’.

An official in the Elementary and Secondary Education department of KP told Dawn: “A notification to adopt Pashto/mother tongue has been issued to all private and government- run schools in January this year and we have not received any reservations regarding the government project so far. Compliance with the order is binding on all without any excuse.  Books for this purpose have already gone through different phases of completion; the plan will be hopefully executed from the upcoming academic session.”

Rahmat Wali, a senior School teacher however, summarised the whole exercise a futile activity adding that adopting mother tongue as compulsory subject was a step backward and ‘if the government is serious about it, they should launch a follow-up campaign in this regard so that implementation of the plan could be ensured in its letter and spirit.