Chief Minister of Punjab Usman Buzdar has announced that Urdu will become the medium of instruction for primary education.
The move is a step closer towards introducing a uniform curriculum in the province and will be applicable from the academic year 2020.
Official Twitter handle of CM Usman Buzdar announced the news.
پرائمری سطح پر ذریعہ تعلیم (Medium of Instruction) انگلش ہونے کی وجہ سے اساتذہ اور بچوں کا سارا وقت مضمون کو سمجھنے کی بجائے ترجمہ کرنے میں صرف ہو جاتا ہے اور بچے کچھ نیا سیکھ نہیں پاتے
اگلے تعلیمی سال (مارچ 2020) سے پنجاب کے پرائمری سکولوں میں ذریعہ تعلیم اردو کر دیا جائے گا pic.twitter.com/yzXSyz0YHH
— Usman Buzdar (@UsmanAKBuzdar) July 27, 2019
It said that the decision was taken after a survey conducted by the provincial education department. It had asked parents, teachers, and students about their choice of language, and 85 percent of the respondents voted for Urdu.
The tweet highlighted that due to unfamiliarity with English; most of the young students spend their academic years translating the subject rather than understanding it.
He said the initiative will improve the quality of education in the province as students will be more interested in studying in their national language.
He said that English will be taught as a foreign language till 5th grade.
بہت اچھا فیصلہ کیا ہے
good decision
the rich guys will refuse to admit their kids in urdu medium schools
The Balochs (Buzdars and others) and Khans are imposed on Punjabis of Punjab to teach them a lesson and to destroy their infrastructure and everything.
Now the whole generation of Punjab will learn Urdu whereas in other provinces they will learn English in Primary. Why English is taught in KP, Balochistan and Sindh in Primary and Why PTI is imposing Urdu medium in Punjab only?.
In the end the students from Punjab will never ever be able to compete at the higher education level which is in Pure English.
English is vital for higher education and students should learn it from the grade 1. Where you go anywhere in the world, English is a must.
This is a pre planned move and people of Punjab should raise their voice against this decision.
This is a very biased reply. In developed countries, medium of education is in the mother tongue or a tongue in which the child is comfortable but NEVER in ENGLISH. This has not stopped these children in understanding the scientific concepts nor has this stopped research from happening. Even though the medium of education is “theoretically” in English in the other provinces, the standard of education is so poor that students in class five cannot write a proper sentence in English in these provinces. We should appreciate this step by the government as this will actually help in development of a child. Moreover I have studied with students from Japan, Taiwan and Europe. These students actually learn English when they land in US and not in their home countries.
Dear Malik sb
Despite looking to this decision with ethnic lens, please do some desk reach on the outcomes of other provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the schools’ students of every level are struggling to understand their text books rather than learn English as language. Further, announcing the shifting of medium of instructions from Urdu/local to English need the trained faculty who can teach in English but unfortunately most of the teachers have inadequate skills in English Primary level and resultantly suffered the Primary level students badly.
Regards.
We should adopt our Urdu language completely. English ek aur overhead hai professional development k liye. We should learn from Japan, China, Germany, France, S. Korea etc. Bohat sa talent hamara isi wajah se zaaya hota hai k English aaye to kuch aagey bane.. English is like a litmus test of intelligence. We should learn English too but to a certain extent.
After over 70 years of existence as an independent country, we are still debating what our education system is going to be. While we should be focusing on drastically bringing down our population to improve the quality of life of our people, we are degrading our systems to further isolating ourselves from rest of the world. It’s not a matter of being rich or poor… Good quality education that prepares our youth to be part of global culture and global economy is every child’s right. But this is only possible if we dedicate enough resources and bring down our population growth rate. Otherwise we will be producing backward global misfits who will be decades behind others.
Brother! to achieve this goal first educate parents and teachers. Most modern countries still educate students in native language. Good quality education can only be possible if you have better way to communicate. In Pakistan, still more than 80% people find difficulty when convey message in foreign lang like eng. even your governing bodies are not comfortable too.
By the way, in education system the only motive is to transfer knowledge, Foreign language should be second option. Schools can improve language class (As I know, English is taught is subject, to memorize some essay, stories, grammar.). This is the area, where you can criticize.
Dear Kamran sahib, I totally agree with you. Teacher training is the very basic point to start this process. But to establish native language syllabus and education system, we first need to develop course books that are worth teaching from. These books should be written in Urdu which is understandable and comprehensible by the students. The content has to be up to date and match or exceed global standards. Now the question is do we already have people who can develop such text books and course work? or are we rushing into this without preparation? We need to engage people from academic and professional areas including psychologists, environmental experts, engineers, mathematicians, language experts and more. To develop proper course work we need to get our new teaching system recognized by international bodies so our students can go for further education anywhere in the world. Choice of subjects also needs to be improved. I am so glad that people like yourself are seeing all this in positive light and are open to discussion and ideas.
Salam and best regards,
Faraz
I agree on that English should be our secondary language. Kids should be able to learn and understand their lessons in Urdu much better and quicker.
pathetic decision. So, our children will start ABC from class 6th?
Very good decision this will ensure quality of Education at primary level and enhance the student learning outcomes