By Letter to the editor

Date:30-11-05

Source: The Dawn

ALL EXPERTS by implication (Opinion Nov 13 & 16, Letters Nov 17, 19, 26) seem to agree that most children in all provinces in Pakistan start with a serious handicap when it comes to learning. They are taught in one or the other foreign language from the very start. Here by a foreign language what I mean is any language that is not one mother tongue the language in which one does not dream.

The natural link between the identity of a person and his mother tongue can never be replaced by any foreign language. Therefore, the act of thrusting any alien language, and hence culture associated with that foreign language, on another group which has its own linguistic/literary, social and cultural traditions creates a sense of confusion, alienation and an inferiority complex. It is especially true when the targets are small children who at some stage in their life are bound to discover the truth.

Unfortunately, the issue of language has been politicized from day one of the short history of Pakistan. That the language can be used as a tool for gaining control and superiority in order to extract undue material benefits has undoubtedly hurt educational, social, cultural and economic well-being of the country and instead has created an environment of pseudo-superiority/inferiority complex that divides and hinders national unity, harmony and real progress. Education is the worst hit sector as is evident from abysmal performance of educational institutions and the quality of graduating students.

The rejection of the natural right of learning in one’s mother tongue of a group of people by another sister group in a nation is equivalent to denigrating that whole group as inferior, insignificant and unimportant. Real or perceived control or deprivation of one group of a society vis -vis the other is certainly not good for anybody and most definitely is not in the larger national interests of the country. It is only responsible that those who enjoy some level of maturity and controlling position look beyond little and immediate benefits in the larger interest of true and lasting national interests.

Why go on depriving all children of their opportunity of learning in their mother tongue in all provinces of Pakistan? Let naturally developing neural networks of their brains make them what they naturally are and not confuse them about what they can never be by misdirecting neurons in their brains at such early stages of their mental development. We need to stop this land from playing cuckoos nest and must help it produce its own chicks.

Responsibility demands the recognition of the natural human rights of all. This way all are bound to benefit.
DR. MUHAMMED AFZAL SHAHID
Via Email