In Pakistan educational system has always been under criticism as it needs a lot of improvement as far as the curriculum and standard of education in government schools are concerned. It is a major divide that every province has different curriculum and many regional languages.
Students had to learn three major languages as a compulsory subject – Urdu, English and Sindhi in the schools of Sindh, while some schools also have Arabic curriculum but it is not included in Board exams as a separate language and supposed to be a part of Islamiat course outline.
The two phrases of Chinese language a Pakistani student is familiar with are “Shay Shay” which means Shukria and “Chai Chin” which means phir milen gay. Thanks to Ibne Insha travelogue (titled Cheen main ek din Urdu kay talib ilmon kay sath) included in the text book of Urdu for class X. But soon there will be more Chinese that our students with not so flat nose can speak as Government of Sindh has decided out of the blue to introduce Chinese language Curriculum in Schools of Sindh from class 6th. Since China is not only a very close friend of Pakistan but is also a major player in the global economy, the Sindh Government thought it was necessary to promote Chinese language in the country.
Apparently there are around 50,000 schools in Sindh excluding private institutions and the ministry of education needs exactly the same number of teachers well versed in one of the world’s most difficult language to implement this decision while financial resources will also be required.
The importance of learning languages is undeniable but it is a fact that students have to struggle a lot to cope up with this decision as they already have the burden of three compulsory languages on them along with the discrimination of Urdu and English medium.
It will be a good option to introduce Chinese Language as an optional subject at graduation level like Arabic and Persian. To begin with crash courses can be offered to businessmen and professionals, who have to communicate with their Chinese counterparts as the decision is all about economic benefits that could be gained from the world’s second-largest economy.
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