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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS VOL 4, NO 12
THE ROLE OF MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION USED IN PAKISTANI CLASSROOMS
Dr. Aijaz Ahmed
(Associate Professor)
Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science
and Technology, Karachi, PAKISTAN
Dr. Tayyaba Zarif
(Head of Education Department & Tehseen
Research Supervisor) (Research Scholar)
Newports Institute of Communication and Newports Institute of Communication and
Economics, Karachi, PAKISTAN Economics, Karachi, PAKISTAN
ABSTRACT
Medium of Instruction is an arguable issue in Pakistan as it is a multilingual country and
has a wealthy good enough history. There is added than one advantage for the medium of
instruction in the Pakistan such as Urdu as the national language of the countryand English as
language of Ex-masters, whereas mother tongue as the inhabitant lives in diverse settings of the
country speaks different languages. This barrier provokes the lot of repulsive issues of medium
of instruction in the schools. The objectives of the abstraction were to analyze the options of
medium of instruction in Pakistan and to emphasize the efforts fabricated by the antecedent
Govt. with advertence to medium of instruction in the country.
Key words: Medium of instruction, Languages in Pakistan, Urdu, English, mother tongue,
education, classroom, language
INTRODUCTION
The medium of instruction is the language that used inside the classroom for instruction
by the teacher. It is not necessary that the official language or the primary language of the
country uses as the medium of instruction.
The official language of Pakistan is Urdu and English whereas the provincial languages
include the Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi. However, the Brahui, Hindko and Siraiki also
uses in different regions of the country.
Most of the families used their native language / mother tongue in their homes with their
family members which indulge the kids to learn only mother tongue instead of other official
languages as well. This is also fact the inhabitants belongs from the rural areas emphasize and
prioritize the youngsters to use their native language. These practices further surge the focus of
new generations towards their mother tongue and restrain from other languages.
Considering the barrier for new students in schools of Pakistan, many schools changed
their medium of instruction from official language to the provincial and regional languages. This
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is not the vogue of the country but observed at different places not everywhere. It create
challenge for children to learn in the language that is Urdu or English which not uses by their
parents inside the house conversation. Mostly, the inhabitants of other languages like Pashto,
Balochi and Sindhi, lives in rural areas do not learn the official languages to their children and at
the time of admission, the teacher address in Urdu which generate the barriers for those students
and ultimately gap in understanding and learning automatically occur which may affect the
education of the children.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Considering the language barriers for the students who admitted in schools but belongs to
different provinces and regions of the Pakistan and specially the children who do not understand
the official language, means Urdu and English, many schools converted their medium of
instructions from either English or Urdu to the provincial and regional languages which provide
easiness to understand the lectures of the teachers and make better understanding among
education, teacher and the students. But this practice is not officially recorded ever but we
observed during visits at different places that where most of the students belong to the same
region their medium of instruction is the regional language.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study will provide the complete theme of the Medium of Instruction uses in Pakistani
Classrooms because meanwhile, no record so for recorded which recognize the medium of
instructions of the Pakistani classrooms categorically. However, this would further make the
understanding of the need of changes in medium of class rooms in Pakistan and the
governmental educational policies may change by the help of the study for future period.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The significance of the study includes the purpose and needs for the differ of Medium
Instruction from the official language of the country, secondly if the reasons and purpose are the
significance and genuine so government may identify the areas for different mediums of
instructions and further emphasize other schools of the provinces as well to change the medium
of instruction for the specific areas which may reduce the barriers for education and provide the
uniformity.
DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES
We selected the medium of instruction as the Dependent Variable whereas the
independent variables of the study include the area, schools, provinces and the population of the
region.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Pakistan has five different local languages Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki and Balochi
whereas the national language is Urdu. The language uses for the domain of power. Progress
cannot come without using one’s own language. There is no example of any country having
made progress through the medium of a foreign language. It is not possible for a man to walk
with the legs of others; see with the eyes of others, it is equally or perhaps more impossible for
him to think in the language of others. (Tariq Rehman, 1997)
The progress made by China and Japan can greatly is ascribed to the brainpower acquired
through developing their owned language as a medium of instruction. Japan is a land of rising
GNP. It rolls in prosperity which is due to advanced technology and economics. These
disciplines have made tremendous advances owing to the Japanese language. (Tariq Rehman,
1997)
A QUESTION we are still grappling with in Pakistan after 58 years is what should be the
language of instruction in our schools? Given all the scientific research that has gone into the
language and literacy issues worldwide — but amazingly not sufficient in Pakistan — one would
have thought we would have originate the respond by now. Unfortunately, we haven’t. Those
who have studied the psycholinguistic development of a child are very clear about their
conclusion. They say that cognitive development and language development are closely related.
According to them, a child learns best in his mother tongue because he is not doubly burdened
with the task of acquiring literacy skills simultaneously with learning another language not his
own. That is why very often the student taught in a non-mother tongue learns to read syllable by
syllable with very little understanding. (Zubeida Mustufa, 2005)
If the superior of our schools were to be bigger in every way and they were to advise in
the mother argot of the majority of acceptance enrolled in them, the bookish abilities of the
accouchement would automatically go up. In actuality one even feels that the top dropout
amount would aswell appear down. One does not abjure that for our humans to get on in life,
abnormally in the globalized apple of today, English is indispensable. There is charge to advise
English and aswell Urdu (to the abounding accouchement whose mother argot is not Urdu) as a
additional language. It is time we learnt that teaching any accent as a additional accent is a
specialized field. This has been awful developed by the countries which try to advertise their
accent and ability away as a apparatus of diplomacy. Be it the Goethe-Institute, the Alliance
Françoise, the British Council or the Farhang-i-Iran, anniversary of them teaches or has
accomplished German, French, English and Persian appropriately as a adopted accent to
Pakistanis. We would do able-bodied to apprentice from them and aswell from the Society of
Pakistan’s English Accent Teachers the alignment of teaching English to our children. This
action should alluringly activate in accessory academy so that if he alcove top academy and
academy the adolescent would be bilingual with ability over English and appropriately accept
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admission to the abundance of ability stored in books in English and abounding added languages.
(Ali RazaMahesar, 2012)
Another actual important acumen why the humans wish their accouchement to apprentice
English is that it is tacitly accustomed as the emphasis of power, as termed by the linguist Dr
Tariq Rahman. Even the benighted labourer who sends his accouchement to academy knows that
their affairs in activity will advance badly if they abstraction English. The accident is that our
abortion to advise English as a additional emphasis in which accouchement can acquaint
accurately - verbally as able-bodied as in autograph — has stratified association amid the
amber sahibs and the desist. The above allege English calmly — even with an acquired
Cambridge emphasis — and apperceive Shakespeare bigger than Ghalib or Shah Latif.
(Muhammad Ilyas Khan, 2012)
They come from the prosperous classes who send their children to the elite private
schools. This generation is regularly speaking English as its first language at home. The others
learn English from their teachers in the low-fee schools who by no means really acquired
proficiency in the English language. They are ghettoized in the job market and never reach the
lucrative jobs at the top. Language — because it is so pathetically taught in most schools — is
becoming a big dividing factor in society today. (Faizullah Jan, 2011)
HYPOTHESES
H1: The medium of instruction uses in Pakistan is the official languages of the country.
H2: The medium of instruction use in Pakistan is understandable by students.
H3: The medium of instruction should be the provincial and regional languages of Pakistan.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Study Design
This is the pure quantitative research by nature and contains the exploratory functions
which emphasize the study to use the exploratory research design to conduct the research.
Population
The population of the study is students and teachers of the schools of Pakistan. They will
be the beneficiary of the study to know that either the medium of instruction is using in Pakistan
is right, understandable, credible by the students, secondly, we would be able to know through
students that the language use by their teachers for addressing the lectures is understandable or
their native language is more effective.
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Sampling
Considering Karachi the hub of Pakistan, where we can meet the students belongs to all
the provinces and regions of Pakistan and studying in the school where medium of instruction is
not their native language, we choose the ten schools of Karachi as strata, located at different
areas of the city and the sample will be the three teachers and 10 students randomly.
Research Instrument
We will use the close ended questionnaire as the research instrument that contains
multiple questions for the each hypothesis to collect the unbiased data. The teachers will fill the
questionnaire at their own whereas, the investigator will fill the questionnaire on behalf of
students.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
H1: The medium of instruction uses in Pakistan is the official languages of the country.
In results of the data collection, we knew that hundred percent of the participant replied
that medium of instruction uses in Pakistan is the Official languages of the country. Furthermore,
we knew that 78% of the schools using Urdu as the medium of instruction that is primary official
language of the country whereas rest of the schools using English language that is secondary
official language.
H2: The medium of instruction use in Pakistan is understandable by students
Only 29% of the students replied that medium of instruction uses in schools is not easily
understandable by the students because their native language / mother tongue is not the official
language / medium of instruction of the country.
H3: The medium of instruction should be the provincial and regional languages of Pakistan
The results revealed that 46% of the population wants their provincial language as the
medium of instruction of the country. This results further reflects that the currently medium of
instruction is not easily understandable and barrier for learning processes, that emphasize them to
want their provincial language as the medium of instruction.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
We conclude that currently the medium of instruction using in schools of Pakistan is not
easily understandable for students that generates a gap between teachers and students and this is
the barrier for learning in comfortable environment instead of providing easiness. However, there
are only four different provinces in the country whereas six different languages mostly uses
inside the country, whereas the official language is only two that is English and Urdu. The
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Language Urdu as medium of instruction is more easily understandable by the students as
compare to the English.
The authorities should further review the policies for medium of instruction to identically
implement in the country to provide the easiness and comfortably for learning as other countries
are implementing.
Our schools are mainly divided intoUrdu medium and English Medium whereas only few
institutions adopted regional and provinciallanguages of the Pakistan whereas, Madaris of the
country has Arabic is a primary medium of instruction. Considering this situation of the country,
it is difficult to unify all the schoolsfor single medium.
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REFERENCES
Tariq Rehman (1997), The Medium of Instruction Controversy in Pakistan, Journal of
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ZubeidaMustufa (16th November, 2005), Debate on Medium of Instruction, The Dawn, Retrieved
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http://www.apnaorg.com/articles/dawn-11/
Ali RazaMahesar (2012), Medium of Instruction in Pakistan, Pakistan Today, Retrieved on 18th
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Muhammad Ilyas Khan (2012), English as medium of Instruction in Pakistan, A non issue,
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