Why students in Pakistan's schools and colleges are scared of studying science

[Irfan Baloch]

Every single country in Europe educates its children in its own language. Not one educates its children in English.

Japan, Korea, China and just about every other country in the world.

You nailed it
Education must be in native tounge. English must be taught as a foreign language not as medium for everything
Once a student has built and understood the concepts in his native tounge he or she can seek related knowledge in English or whatever with better prospects of understanding rather than struggling to translate and then comprehend

 

[untitled]

I said curiosity makes me. Wallahi it a free time ho ke sub languages main search Karun to aur Kia chiye.

And what I meant was that many of the words in Urdu language are borrowed/loan words. The word Urdu itself is a Turkish word meaning army and shares roots with the the English word Horde.

 

[Moonlight]

I find this interesting, admittedly I am no expert. I simply cannot understand why every language in the world can translate words effectively and Urdu can't. Is your language that useless?

For example Turkey educates its children in , surprise, surprise, Turkish. All the scientific words are translated, not just copied. For example the Turkish word for 'computer' is a Turkish word, not just 'computer'.

I don't understand why they can do it and you can't.

First of all, I love Urdu language and I am not saying to bring it to an end in Pakistan and make the English the official language. Just for few particular subjects and to compete with the world, there's nothing wrong to teach it in English. Next, as per my knowledge, China is actually increasing the use of this language. This world is a 'global village' sir. & it's becoming very much necessary to learn English.
And you're taking the whole point to a different and wrong direction. OF COURSE NO IT IS NOT USELESS. Keep it your official language and language for rest of the subjects.

 

[jamal18]

You nailed it
Education must be in native tounge. English must be taught as a foreign language not as medium for everything
Once a student has built and understood the concepts in his native tounge he or she can seek related knowledge in English or whatever with better prospects of understanding rather than struggling to translate and then comprehend

I went to school in England and excelled at most subjects, ahead of most of my classmates. However, the compulsory foreign language was french, and I simply couldn't get a grasp on it. I ended up getting low marks in french, but it didn't matter.

If the language of education had been french, I wouldn't have left school with a single qualification.

First of all, I love Urdu language and I am not saying to bring it to an end in Pakistan and make the English the official language. Just for few particular subjects and to compete with the world, there's nothing wrong to teach it in English. Next, as per my knowledge, China is actually increasing the use of this language. This world is a 'global village' sir. & it's becoming very much necessary to learn English.
And you're taking the whole point to a different and wrong direction. OF COURSE NO IT IS NOT USELESS. Keep it your official language and language for rest of the subjects.

No I am not, with respect. Global village? Then teach English as a foreign language for those who want to visit it.

 

[Moonlight]

You nailed it
Education must be in native tounge. English must be taught as a foreign language not as medium for everything
Once a student has built and understood the concepts in his native tounge he or she can seek related knowledge in English or whatever with better prospects of understanding rather than struggling to translate and then comprehend

I don't know why, but it surpirsed me to see you are agreeing on it sir.
You know what? Japanese speak Japanese, German speak German, Chinese speak their launaguge and so on. But Pakistan has so many lanagues and many people don't even know much of their Urdu and it's just like English to them. And English is mandatory subject in Pakistan. So why not just teaching sciences subjects in English. Repeating myself, just science subjects.

Global village

Considering this world as a single community.

Then teach English as a foreign language for those who want to visit it.

Hahaha what are you talking about? Who knows destiny will make him visit any foreign country? Or you want to tell me, when a person knows he's gonna visit a foreign country, should take English courses first?

 

[jamal18]

Hahaha what are you talking about? Who knows destiny will make him visit any foreign country? Or you want to tell me, when a person knows he's gonna visit a foreign country, should take English courses first?

Majority of the world gets by perfectly well without English. This conversation is about teaching science in English.

Learning English as a foreign language? No problem.

I had to learn french.

 

[Zibago]

Sir, I am science student and always I look up something in Urdu, I end up finding the same word is used in English. Some languages share many terms and/or words and which make it easy to translate. But, Urdu is very different than English and it is hard to translate it into Urdu or vice versa.




@Zibago sheikh sahib aap ki Zarorat hai yahan is Bhae sahib ko Zara models wale thread ki direction déna. :p

Inki wall par kisi ka pegham hay zara daikh lain

Really poor quality of science teachers(and in some cases shortage)in peela schools is one big reason

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

Every single country in Europe educates its children in its own language. Not one educates its children in English.

Japan, Korea, China and just about every other country in the world.

I think the kids in Great Britain might get their education in English, LOL.

Classes in English is mandatory, so basically everyone speaks and understand English.

At University level, You should expect much literature to be English.

Personally, being native Swedish, I started to subscribe to an English Magazine when I was 11 Years old,
but I guess that is not so common.

 

[Old School]

I think the kids in Great Britain might get their education in English, LOL.

Classes in English is mandatory, so basically everyone speaks and understand English.

At University level, You should expect much literature to be English.

Personally, being native Swedish, I started to subscribe to an English Magazine when I was 11 Years old,
but I guess that is not so common.

30 years ago , In our Gymnasium in the Netherlands , not only English ( + 1 modern language) was mandatory but also either Latin or Greek as a prerequisite to study science at the university. Most terminology in science are in either Greek or Latin. During the time of Isaac Newton , Latin was the lingua Franca in European higher studies. Now it is English.

 

[DRaisinHerald]

Sir Urdu is totally different language than English and there are many many and so many words which can't be translated into Urdu. I can give you a list of words.

They sure can be appropriated in one way or another, like in languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean. But no one cares to. Or it's just a slave mentality you people suffer from. I don't know.
Good luck trying to educate 200 million people in a foreign language even the so called 'educated elite' have trouble mastering.

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Really?

Then why doesn't that stop every country from teaching in its own language?

China, the pioneer of its own system and its own language, has compulsory English from high school, and in Universities.
Not because they hate their tongue. But the industrial environment they work on, contains a lots of "English words". Do u know Chinese in China have two names? Official names and Business names. Business names should be English for foreigners to call them easily.

My dad was a science teacher, and he did face the problems of converting some terminologies into tamil. Now what will u convert the term Greenhouse effect into? There a lots of terms like that. Promoting your language is different than learning science. I love Tamil, but still English as a medium for science is very important.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I started to subscribe to an English Magazine when I was 11 Years old,
but I guess that is not so common.

Hooters or Big'uns?

 

[Musafir117]

German Japanees French studied in their native languagescoz they not need to go out and get jobs they are independent enough after studies work in their countries in all fields, individuals who want to to work abroad or need more researchs are studying English. We don't want English but We need it.

 

[iPhone]

A very well written article that highlights the dilemma we face at a national level in fully comprehending the subject of science because we lack the required linguistic tools. Since the author possesses an exceptional command over the English language why not also come up with so some solutions?

I would love to hear what mr. Nayyar proposes that the leaders should opt for in tackling this issue. We all know the problems, that English isn't our native language, a great many can't hardly speak it, and advanced subjects are best taught in english. But what are the solution? Should we incorporate English into our schools from very early on or work on expanding the scientific urdu language vocabulary?

 

[Ankit Kumar]

Why don't teach both English and Urdu/Arabic/Punjabi(or whatever you call it).
Simple.

But the other things pointed out by the OP, its same problems here in India.