Moalims

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government couldn’t establish the authority for promotion of regional languages in the province in more than three years, according to officials.

They said that the government was violating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regional Languages Authority Act, 2012 by not establishing the authority. “It means the incumbent government has not been giving importance to the regional languages spoken in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” they added.

The ANP-led previous provincial government had passed the bill for promotion of regional languages on January 2, 2012. The provincial government at that time needed the establishment of the authority after teaching of the five regional languages were made compulsory up to intermediate level at educational institutions.

The previous government had made Pashto, Hindko, Kohar, Seraiki and Kohistani compulsory for their survival and promotion, officials in the elementary and secondary education department told Dawn.

Minister says process will be accelerated to set up the authority
They said that presence of the languages authority was necessary in the present scenario as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board was ready to commence the preparation of the textbooks for the five regional languages.

It was the domain of the languages authority to recommend to government the curriculum and syllabus for the teaching of the regional languages, spoken in the province, they said.

Officials said that in the absence of the regional languages authority, the Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which developed curricula up to intermediate level, prepared curricula of the regional languages with the support of other stakeholders.

They said that curricula for the regional languages to be formally introduced from primary level in the schools from April 2017 was developed with the support of scholars, poets and writers of the four languages including Hindko, Seraiki, Kohar and Kohistani. They said that the curricula of Pashto language was already available and taught in the government schools as optional subject since long.

The law empowers the regional languages authority to consider ways and means for promotion of regional languages and making all necessary arrangements for teaching, promotion and use of regional languages.

The law says that the authority would also make coordinated efforts with other stakeholders to ensure correct use of regional languages and promote them through publications.

The preparation and publication of dictionaries, encyclopedia, reference books, scientific literature and periodicals, translation and publication of technical terms in science, home economics, humanities and commerce subjects is also the responsibilities of the proposed authority.

The law has empowered the authority to announce and arrange prizes, awards, seminars, lectures and adopt any other measures for promoting any of the regional languages.

Initially, soon after the passage of the law, some efforts were made by the education department for establishment of the authority and appointment of the members of the authority, a senior official in the education department said.

He added that the process was immediately stopped when the tenure of the ANP government ended in early 2013.

Provincial Minister for Education Mohammad Atif Khan, when contacted, said that some ground work was already done for setting up the authority. The process of setting up the authority was slow, he said.

He added the process would be accelerated to establish the authority.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2015