Rawalpindi, British Council held a symposium in collaboration with Fatima Jinnah Women University on ‘Teaching and Learning in Pakistan –Role of Language in Education’ here Thursday.

Talking on the occasion, Hywel Coleman, Honorary Research Fellow at University of Leeds, UK, said early education must be imparted to children in their mother tongue, as it will help them in understanding basic concepts.

“Once they (children) grip the fundamental things, then they should be taught national and foreign languages”, he stressed.

He pointed out that about six million children did not go to schools in Pakistan while the dropout rate was also so high that out of school going children, some 60 percent passed primary standard in the country.

He declared it a dilemma that 64 percent boys and 72 percent girls were out of schools, and said it was a proof of the failure of education policy in Pakistan. Emphasizing upon the need of dialogues as a part of consultation while drafting new education policy, he observed that education policies in Pakistan had been completely failed to serve their due purpose of addressing real problems.

He told the audience that such sessions were also held at Karachi and Peshawar and the deliberations of all consultative discussions would be compiled and a draft of the proposed policy would be floated to the government by April 2011.

Dr Tariq Rehman was of the view that charm of educating children did not remain when languages other than mother tongue were used for this purpose. He maintained that to start the process of teaching in mother tongue, the mindset of parents should be changed adding English language should be taught in the beginning but as a subject instead of medium.

Dr Qibla Ayaz underlined that it was the need of the hour to bring drastic changes in education policies. He said the Islamic seminaries and Madrassas should not be ignored and they should be brought in mainstream as by-products of these institutions could affect a sizeable segment of the society.

Dr Umer Farooq stressed upon the need of teachers’ training and said the modern media - Internet, cellular phones and distance education system should be used for the purpose.
Noor Amna Malik said English had a gate-keeping role to excel in the comity of nations but it did not mean to sweep Urdu under the carpet.

Many other renowned educationist and linguists including Noor Amna Malik from Higher Education Commission, and Zakia Sarwar participated in the seminar.