PROFESSOR (Dr) Arifa Farid’s letter ‘Medium of instruction’ (Nov 21) is a welcome breeze in a desert. Our leaders have lent no attention to this important problem of national interest. They have been votary of status quo and followed Lord Macaulay who devised a system of education for the Empire to produce clerks in the subcontinent.

No spadework has been done so far to rationalise the medium of instruction in Pakistan. It is axiomatic that the local language is the best medium of instruction. As a teacher of English I have found ad nauseam that our students are as bad in English as in Urdu.

Our thrust as a teacher should be to develop skills of students in both languages. Most language teachers do not realise the importance of listening, the rote system is patronised in our educational institutions, particularly schools.

Selfishness has been the hallmark of leaders in our part of the world. To keep out the lower classes from the echelon of power, they have followed a line which benefits them most: hence English has been in vogue as a medium of instruction. They send their children abroad for education.

Students should have the choice to opt either medium in any class. But the question is that there are no books of science written in Urdu even at the intermediate level. Books of chemistry, biology, physics, etc, may be produced in Urdu. Officially, the medium of instruction in all schools in Pakistan these days is English but it is a pity that there are no English teachers in many schools. If there are teachers, they are untrained and deliver nothing to students.

In the end I’ll request Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Hamza Shabaz to visit schools in both rural and urban areas in Sindh and Punjab, respectively, and see the state of affairs for themselves and then take action to improve schools.

For their information, I may add that most schools in urban areas and almost all schools in rural areas are in a shambles.

Prof S. Basharat Ali

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2014