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Language policy in higher education — III
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The importance of English in national development cannot be denied
as Pakistan has lagged behind other South Asian countries in both
availability and quality of education, particularly in higher education
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Sabiha Mansoor </a>
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<span class="" itemprop="datePublished">November 13, 2015</span>
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<p>Pakistan’s current language situation and the key issues
identified in the language policy for higher education have been
discussed earlier in part I and II of this article. It is recommended
that the state’s ‘elitist’ policy be revisited by language planners so
as to enable Pakistan to adopt a cultivation policy that is based on
access and equity.</p><br>
<p>In both studies, students and graduate employees displayed positive
attitudes towards Urdu for integrative reasons. They see Urdu as the
national official language, important for national identity and national
integration. The educated middle-class provides most personnel for
white-collar jobs, comprising the Urdu-speaking community because of its
historical background, urban residence and traditional reliance on
education for social and economic mobility. The results of the study on
higher education also support the view that a large number of students
(42 percent) come from the Urdu-speaking community while the findings of
the second study on employment were similar where 53 percent of the
graduate employees were from the Urdu-speaking community. Attention must
be paid to development of the current curricula in primary and
secondary schools that is outdated and too rigorous and boring. What
must also be looked at is the regular training of Urdu teachers whose
pedagogy has not changed in over 50 years. New and interesting materials
need to be developed to enhance more positive attitudes towards our
national language. The state must focus on training bilingual teachers
for primary and secondary schooling, and for our public sector
universities to offer courses in Urdu for higher education. The Higher
Education Commission (HEC) must take serious note of the need for
setting up translation departments in all universities for corpus
development.</p><br>
<p>It is important that regional language speakers, especially in the
case of under developed areas (the perfect example being the Balochistan
youth), be provided an equal opportunity to access higher education and
graduate employment, as in the case of Urdu speakers through status and
corpus planning. Currently, very few regional minority speakers
complete their 12 years of schooling to enter higher education
institutions and after graduation get to access white-collar jobs. The
high levels of illiteracy leading to unrest and lack of development are
due to a large dropout rate in primary schooling due to little or
negligible use of their mother tongue because of the Urdu medium policy
and lack of educational materials. First of all, studies underscore the
need to analyse the relationship between various ethnic groups and how
they view language as being part of the sharing of their identity. This
would also have to take into consideration the sharing of state power
and resources in relation to these multi-ethnic groups of Pakistan.</p><br>
<p>The importance of English in national development cannot be denied as
Pakistan has lagged behind other South Asian countries in both
availability and quality of education, particularly in higher education.
Pakistani students and graduate employees have revealed highly positive
attitudes towards the English language. They do not see the study of
English as detrimental to their culture but rather as necessary for
Pakistan to become a progressive and modern state. Students want to
study English for instrumental reasons and English as an international
lingua franca to improve the future of Pakistan. Also, as seen in both
studies, it is important for language planners in education to
understand that all student graduates must be fluent in English for
higher education and good jobs in Pakistan and abroad. It is also a
requirement for international trade and for the socio-economic
development of Pakistan. The attitudes of students and teachers, as well
as the demands of the employment sector must be kept in view while
framing a language education policy. English should remain the second
official language. A language education policy that is imposed by
legislation or even by a martial law ordinance (such as Ziaul Haq’s
policy to adopt the Urdu medium and remove the nomenclature of English
medium, which had to be reversed) cannot succeed without the cooperation
of teachers and students.</p><br>
<p>As such efforts must be made to implement Urdu as the national
official language. We must recognise English as the second national
official language and all four regional languages should be given the
status of regional official languages to enhance their status. We must
develop educational materials in not only Urdu but also regional
languages. Regional languages should be used for primary schooling and
also made a compulsory subject for graduate studies.</p><br>
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<p>(Part II of this article was published on these pages on October 15, 2015. It is now concluded)</p><br>
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<p><strong>The author is a professor of English at the Lahore School of
Economics, author and editor of several books on language and education</strong></p><p><a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/13-Nov-2015/language-policy-in-higher-education-iii">http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/13-Nov-2015/language-policy-in-higher-education-iii</a><br><strong></strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p> </div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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