Masum Billah :
The unique history that we made to establish mother tongue as state languge at the cost of surempe sacrife has crossed 69 years with our observance of ‘International Mother Language Day’ this year (2021). How our mother tongue to be used in all spheres of our life has not been ensured yet during this long period of time. Nor could we make any policy how to determine the status of our language that runs in Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweeden, Finnland, Norway, Russia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Malayasia and the countries of South America. Even Nepal sees its own language policy that we lack. The verdict in the higher court is declared in their mother tongue in Nepal that we still could not have done practically.
The language policy of South Africa entails the officially use of their own language as well as English. That must be a very smart policy as the current world cannot deny the use of English. Those who are averse to learning or using English should fathom the matter into a little bit more deep. Learning this foreign and global language does not necessarily mean to undermine our dear mother tongue. Rather it promises enrichment of Bengali along with the economic upliftment of the country. That’s why we need to have a ‘language policy’which will guide how to evaluate our mother tongue in all kinds of institutions and except mother tongue how many languages can we use, where to use, how to use, how to learn, how long to learn, why to learn, the balance between mother tonue and foregin language, who will learn a foreign language etc.
Some people show their concern with the increase of English medium schools in the coutnry. The number of registered English medium schools is 159 and might be another hundred wihout registration and all of them don’t have ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level that definitely proves a meagre number of educational institutions that run Cambridge or EdEXEL syllabus and necessarily they don’t stand in the way of honour Bengali and the introduction of Bengali at all levels. Bengali is also taught in these instituions. Not all the students of these insitutions can use English excellently and comfortably. But they try. If they can, foreign universities accept them gladly when they see good grades in English which must be a positive aspect for us all. We should try to make them love Bengali without looking at them with a frowned eye.
Many of our educationists who studied English, teach English but work for Bengali. They are real advocates of our mother tongue. Examples can be cited here — Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, Professor Monjurul Islam, Late professor Zillur Rahman Siddique. They know English well and similarly Bengali also. So, we should not cry that learning English is banishing Bengali. Globalization process will lead us to a marginalized position unitl we promote, use and go at par with a global language. Through it, we can export our own language outside the world practically, not theorically.
Since independence no language survey has yet been conducted that also sounds starange. It is learnt that in 1962 an initiative was taken to conduct a survey on regional languages by Bangla Academcy and the linguist and educationist Dr. Muhammad Shahiduallah developed questionnaire also to conduct the survey. Then educationist and researcher Professor Dr. Mohammad Abdul Quyyum started the survery in three upazilas. However, it did not see the light of implementation next. We must remember that language is continuously changing. No language of any country remains static. The change that takes place may happen in favour of the society and culture of a nation or may go in its disfavor as well. Two national organizations such as Bangla Academy and International Langauge Institute work for language and culturual development but question arises how far they have contributed to introducing Bangla at all leves or even to spreading Bangla in the global arena in the real sense of the term.
It’s a matter of concern that many secondary level students cannot read their Bengali textbook well. Why does it happen? Does it mean that they are learning English so cannot read Benglai? No, they cannot read English as well. We must look into this matter very seriously and take effective and practical steps so that our future generation can read, write and speak Bengali as per our expectation. We should not waste time showing our concern and giving venom to those who learn English. A language policy can give a clear guidline how to improve the situation of our mother tongue and equip our next generation to use Benglai perfectly in their everyday life and all levels of state. The policy will also shed clear light on how many foreign languages we need to learn and how to learn and why to learn. Students will learn those on the basis of national consensus, not in the face of unnecessary opposion of some groups.
(Masum Billah works for BRAC Education and President- English Teachers’ Association of Bangaldesh. Email: [email protected] )
