[lg policy] Pakistan: Teaching in English may harm your child ’s future

[Harold Schiffman]

Teaching in English may harm your child’s future

UK researcher proposes a dream policy of bilingual education in Pakistan

KARACHI: If children, in the first years of their education, are not
taught in a language they are familiar with, they may drop out of
school later. University of Leeds UK Honorary Senior Research Fellow,
Hywel Coleman, explained that teaching in an unfamiliar language can
also cause alienation between home and school, poor educational
achievement, poor acquisition of foreign languages, such as English,
ethnic marginalisation and long-term decline of indigenous languages.

Coleman was quoting his report during a lecture, which was part of the
policy dialogue organised by the British Council and the Society of
Pakistan English Language Teachers (Spelt) to discuss ‘Language in
Education in Pakistan’ at the Department of English, University of
Karachi, on Wednesday.

Dream policy for Pakistan

In his report on the dream policy for Pakistan, Coleman has suggested
that the child’s first language should be the medium of instruction up
till class III, Urdu should be the medium till class IX and English
should only be used as a mode of teaching from class X and beyond.
Through this scheme, he proposes a bilingual face to education.

However, not all participants at the seminar agreed with Coleman’s
model. Prof Fauzia Shamim, Department of English, believed that
bilingual education in Pakistan will be hindered by a lack of
materials in vernacular languages, limited support for high quality
language instruction and the “ambivalent” attitude towards the value
of vernacular languages.

Shamim pointed out that in the presence of more than 70 spoken
languages, it will be difficult to identify major languages of
instruction. English is “a tool for individual and national
development” and it can only be acquired easily if it is learnt in the
early years, she said, supporting her argument with the example of
India and South Africa, where such policies failed.

On the other hand, Dr M Memon, professor and director of the Institute
of Educational Development at Aga Khan University supported Coleman’s
model.

“I studied in Urdu till Intermediate and still managed to learn
English later,” he said. Making English the teaching language may work
for people whose families also speak it but those from poor
socio-economic backgrounds, whose native language is the home
language, may have to struggle to express and think in one language,
he explained.

Dr Hina Kazmi supported the use of English by saying that none of the
native languages, including Urdu, have the literature, research,
translations and terminology of modern scientific advancements to
become teaching languages.

English in Pakistan is seen as a language to help you progress in your
studies as well as jobs, said Spelt programme committee coordinator
Fatima Shahabuddin. According to the language policy of 2009, English
has been made compulsory for primary classes, Shahabuddin said,
stressing that there is a dire need to produce English language
teachers.

Meanwhile, Tony Capstick, English adviser at the British Council
referred to the role of his organisation in the education sector.
“Having commissioned Coleman to carry out extensive research across
Pakistan, we felt that it was important to use this as a starting
point to consultation [on education],” he said.

Research cited by the researcher

According to Coleman, there are more than 70 languages spoken in
Pakistan with over a million people speaking each of the six major
regional languages. Urdu is the first language of only seven per cent
of the population but spoken by the greatest number of people.

In his research, Coleman divided the schools in Pakistan into four
types: private elite (English medium), private non-elite (nominally
English), government (Urdu) and madrassas (Urdu). Since around 95 per
cent children in Pakistan do not study in their home language, their
results are poor, except for children attending private, elite
schools.

In conclusion, the foremost priority is to contribute to bilingual
education through policy debates and raising awareness on the
importance of mother-tongue education in the early years of schooling,
Coleman said.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/62188/teaching-in-english-may-harm-your-childs-future/

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
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)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list