English vs Education

Jawad Jatoi
The sign of a good education system in Pakistan contemplates that if a guy can speak English well, he has information, and he is a real gentleman and bookish person. Even though he does not know the deep meaning of humanity, he is known as an intelligent person in our society. Absolutely wrong tools of measurement. How did the English language become the second most spoken language in the world, where everyone is dreaming that he could speak it? If we peep into the history of English people, they colonized half the world in different periods; however, the other world was busy with their fundamental rights. They were developing literature, inventing new things like science, and finding the actual job of man in that universe. That’s how the English language developed and spread all around the world. English is just a language. An American car driver can also speak English, but can we say that guy is an educator or philosopher? Of course not. So language is just a way of communication in order to convey a message, not education.In Pakistan, English medium schools are private, and only elite-class families can afford them and send their children easily. On the other hand, government schools are completely in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, or Balochi. Where are the English medium schools? A guy who earns 800 rupees per day while English medium school fees are 10,000 to 20,000—how can he send his children? Sixty percent of people in Pakistan are poor, and they struggle for two meals a day. How can they afford such high fees? It depends on the policy of their administration. Language barriers create obstacles for many students, and they abandon their studies, confused that in the kingdom of the English language, they cannot take any competitive examination. Because they come from middle-class families, their schooling is in their mother tongue, and from those education systems, they come out absolutely broken and have dreams of getting rid of poverty one day. But their dreams remain only dreams, nothing else—later banished from their homes for two meals, going abroad not for studying but for labor. UPSC is the second toughest examination in the world, which is held in India annually. That exam can be taken in 22 languages, including Sindhi, Punjabi, Urdu, and 19 other languages as well. If we look at the CSS exam, we don’t have any options to take the exam in Urdu, Sindhi, or Punjabi; however, Urdu is our national language. Why can’t we take exams in our own mother tongue? Is the examiner from the UK or USA? Though we take the English language, nobody can be perfect in a second language. If he learns from his parents, then we can say he can be perfect. But here in Pakistan, the situation is not like that. The majority of people speak and write in Urdu, and their schooling is thoroughly in Urdu medium as well, but exams are in English. Wow! If a guy gives the CSS exam in the English language but has to serve among Urdu-speaking people, where is English beneficial? Nobody has a completely English background.Recently, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited Pakistan for better relations. When he was giving a speech in his mother tongue, Turkish, and our Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was giving his speech in English, the question is: why English? Is our national language English, or are we completely English people? Then whom was Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif addressing? Are Pakistanis completely English?Because of the English language, we have lost many minds that could have boosted the country and revealed many paths for the younger generation. But I feel that we deliberately destroy our country. We never want to know the difference between language and education.