KARACHI CHRONICLE: Chinese in Sindh schools

The Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government has been in saddle long enough for people to realise they ought not to take seriously what it says or decides to do. Its latest senseless decision is to introduce Chinese language in schools as a compulsory subject from Class VI.
There is no substance to this decision as it was made without proper planning. Even the Sindh Education minister was unaware. Dr Memon, head of the Aga Khan University's Institute of Education development said the matter was not discussed or even mentioned by the Education minister at their recent meeting.
Some believe the decision to introduce Chinese language in Sindh schools is a political move to please the Chinese, the only people who, despite our mistreatment of them, continue to be steadfast friends of Pakistan. The Chinese must be as shocked as the public by the arbitrary manner Sindh government decide to introduce their language in schools.
The Chinese plan carefully. We know this. What we do not know is that the public is made aware long before any decision is implemented. We are influenced by Western, particularly American, anti-China hype. The West portrays Chinese government as inhuman which ignores public aspirations and feelings. But the wife of a colleague who was posted in China for several years at the time the Three Gorges Dam was being built, and we heard horror stories on Western media of whole villages and cities being wiped out by the rising waters of the dam, said that ten years prior to the dam's construction, the people who would be affected were informed and new housing was built long before a drop of water from the dam began to flow.
What I mean to say is that Sindh government should follow China's example. Any decision that is likely to affect the people should be made public long before the plan is scheduled to be implemented. People's feelings do not matter to the incumbent government of Sindh. Its style of governance is to decide matters hastily and, often, even coalition partners are unaware of what the government has decided to do. It has caused disaffection of the partners and reduced Karachi especially, to a state of anarchy.
Why are people talking about whether or not Chinese language should be taught in schools? Why don't they complain about the persistent high-handed operation of the Sindh government and the outright cruelty to ordinary folk? In this case the folk who will be subjected to cruelty are little children.
Learning a language comes easy to children of course, but that is not the issue. The real issue is that there are too many subjects in school curriculum that are useless to future citizens to earn their livelihood or lay the foundation for professions that will rid the country of its failed state stigma.
Some people think that the only foreign language worth learning is English since modern science and technology is universally available through it. They say even Chinese professionals have to learn English to achieve higher levels of development and progress of their country. This is of course a fact, but take a look at the standard of English taught in our schools, especially the numerous so-called English medium institutions.
Its a farce. Most of the English-medium schools are just business ventures capitalising on the misperception that the elite speak English, are educated in English and so the language is a magic wand that will endow high status. Such things as pronunciation, grammar, spelling and composition simply do not figure in the teaching of English language. So if we introduce Chinese in schools there is no hope the students will be proficient in the language. After all, English medium education has been taught in Pakistan since the beginning and even earlier under the British Raj.
In this light, the noise that is being made that we lack trained teachers of Chinese language appears to be farcical. Those who teach English language are trained teachers. There are textbooks and exercise books for English available to the student.
Yet the level of English is substandard and hopeless. That will be the fate of Chinese too, no matter if we have trained teachers and proper textbooks. The cruel feature of Sindh government's decision to introduce Chinese language in schools is that it is to be a compulsory subject. Compulsory means enforced: you fail in it, you fail to pass. There is a great load of compulsory subjects in schools which
makes one wonder: are the children being educated or punished?
However, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. It is the determination of Sindh government to sleep over its decisions, especially those decisions that might inadvertently benefit the masses, such as the poverty alleviation programme they announced with great fanfare at the start of their tenure. So do not worry that the Chinese language decision will be implemented. It is scheduled to start in the year 2013. By that time everyone in the halls of Sindh power will have forgotten it. So you, too, forget it.