Rally demands inclusion of mother languages in curriculum
Irshadullah Khan
PESHAWAR: A rally was held outside Peshawar press club on Tuesday demanding inclusion of mother languages in the curriculum.
The rally was organized under the auspices of the Mother Languages Movement, in which people from different walks of life participated.
Addressing the participants, the speakers said that in 2012, the Pakhtunkhwa government had passed the Regional Languages Authority Act, which recommended inclusion of mother tongues of Pakhtunkhwa in the curriculum of their respective regions. However, despite the passage of 11 years, this act has not been implemented.
Against this, a platform was created with representative songs of all languages of Pakhtunkhwa under the name of “Mother Things”, which has been struggling for the implementation of this act for the last three months.
On this occasion, President of Anjuman Taraq-e-Khowar Rehmanullah told Chitral Today that the languages were recommended to be included in the curriculum in 2012, but the Khowar language was neglected in it.
“We demand that the five languages recommended in the Regional Languages Authority Act should be included in the curriculum. Preparation of syllabus and recruitment of teachers should be ensured for teaching those languages. Languages that have been neglected including Khowar should be included in the curriculum as soon as possible. All languages should be given individual attention,” he added.
A large number of Khowar speakers are present in Gilgit and Chitral. The convener of Anjuman Halqa Peshawar Rayees Mehrban Elahi said that Khowar language should be included in the census represented in PTV.
The rally was also addressed by senior vice president Fazal Naeem, Syed Ibrahim Shah, Zafar Masroor and Abdul Jalil Jalali.
The participants said that if the demands are not met, the next action plan will be announced in the meeting of the movement on March 10.