Why Early Learning In Mother Tongue More Effective for Quality Education?

Studies by educational experts show that learners benefit more from using their mother-tongue for education in early years. British Council Pakistan, is one of the main organizations for learning English language in the country. It persistently suggests that mother-tongue still remains the best medium to increase real time literacy rate in underdeveloped countries. Global Campaign for Education (GCE) found that over 220 million children in underdeveloped countries suffer from learning disability due to language barrier. Such barriers contributes to poor education quality, low literacy rates and high dropouts.

Perceived Supremacy of English Language in Pakistan

Majority of parents in Pakistan believe that bypassing the local language and learning in English can give a successful head start to their children in education. Studies indicate that English language is often perceived supreme by underdeveloped countries for its global acceptance at professional level. A recent example is the negative reaction of parents to development of Single National Curriculum (SNC) by Federal government. The main reason is their decision to teach primary year students using Urdu as a medium of teaching.

In SNC, English will be taught as a language rather than just subject to form stronger basis of English language.

Read More: Summary of Single National Curriculum

English is considered a status symbol in Pakistan which causes the division in classes. It is also a way to compete at international level. Moreover, parents also argue over the issue of difference in terminologies from Urdu and English. This can make it difficult in future to switch to courses in English for Middle and High school.  However, empirical studies from around the globe by renowned institutions show surprisingly different results. When similar economies are studied for language and learning, using local language medium for primary years showed better results.

Empirical Research supporting Mother-Tongue as Medium for Primary Education

Several international organizations have been working in field of global education since past many decades. The implementation of multipronged strategies in curriculum development and pedagogical approaches has led to availability of comprehensive data regarding factors that affect improvement and deterioration in literacy rates in developing or under-developed countries. Based on these studies, we have summarized the following findings by well-known organizations regarding relationship between use of mother-tongue and learning in primary years:

• There is a wide gap between early language skills of students from urban and rural areas. Children joining schools from urban areas have exposure to both local and English language at home. On the other hand, children from rural areas join school with only their local language. Lack of basic understanding of English language makes curriculum harder to understand for children. This in turn results in increased drop-outs or poor learning.
• Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is one of the largest multi-stakeholder platform for enhancing literacy rates in underprivileged countries. GPE asserts that, ‘children whose primary language is not the language of instruction in school are more likely to drop out of school or fail in early grades’. Similar assertion is made by GCE which suggests that “When pre-existing pockets of marginalization, poverty, or poor teaching quality intersect with schooling in an unknown language, children may never make it to school”.
• Several researches by UNESCO, World Bank and British Council have found that children’ optimal language for literacy and learning in primary years is his/her first language. That combined with other languages in later years, has proved to be the only solution for achieving goal of Education for ALL.
• A report by National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education under Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) stated that learning in mother-tongue
  • Builds up positive self-concept
  • Results in uninterrupted intellectual development
  • Has better parental involvement in communication with teachers and student activities
  • Yields development of better thinking skills as curriculum key competencies and expected goals are easier to achieve.
• British Council suggests that learning doesn’t begin in school but at home. For countries like Pakistan, where rural population is more than 63%, implementation of a progressive curriculum like SNC requires careful political strategies like other countries. The interactive learner-centered approach, which is recommended by all educationists, only works in learning environments where students are proficient in medium of instruction. When taught in new language, the learning becomes teacher-centric and produces passive learners. Teaching in local language not only allows students to understand but also participate, ask questions, create and communicate new knowledge. Moreover, this also increases relevance of education system to them and increase retention ratio in schools.
• Research by Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) asserts that main aim of early education is to develop basic literacy of reading, writing and arithmetic. When students can learn to associate sounds of a language with letters and symbols written, it becomes easy to learn any language. According to EGRA, students who develop early reading skills in any language get a great head start for education in future.

Case Studies supporting use of Mother-Tongue for Primary Literacy

Empirical studies on global literacy rate found several examples of countries that achieved high literacy rates through introduction of earlier education in mother-tongue. This often followed by multi-lingual education in middle schools.

• Uzbekistan: While literacy rate of country has been higher since 2000, Uzbekistan government has been actively investing in Early Years education in rural areas. The Uzbek government focused on improving literacy in mother-tongue which led to increase in reading ability of 98% children.
• Philippines: Applied Localized Curriculum country-wide and increased literacy rate from 92% in 2003 to 98.2% in2015.
• Gambia: In 2011, Gambian government took an ambitious approach to education by implementing localized curriculum in the country under Early Literacy in National Language Program (ELINL). This lead to increase in literacy rate from 36% in 2000 to 50% in 2015 and around 60% in 2019.

To successfully implement such policies, Pakistani government needs to ensure that

1. primary education is provided in local language
2. All material for curriculum is available to schools
3. Initiate early childhood education (ECCE) in mother-tongue to start process of learning at young age
4. Support effective teaching methods and provide pedagogy skills’ training.

Without a cohesive approach by government, achieving success in increasing literacy rate and quality education is not possible.

Read More: New Initiative in Preschool Education (ECCE) under SNC