Should Science and Technology Education in Pakistan be solely taught in Urdu?

[Moin Ahmed]

It is generally perceived that in order to make original contribution to Science and Technology the basic knowledge must be the National language of the country. This is evidenced by huge contributions to Science and Technology by countries like Germany, Holland, France, Russia, England, Poland, Austria, Italy, China, and Japan. Pakistan's and India's Educational Framework was unfortunately left behind as a vestige of the Colonial rule. English was adopted in these countries as the language of Science and Technology simply as an expedient to avoid conflict between Urdu and Hindi with the other Provincial languages. And also because it was easier to use the English language text books left by the British than to spend time and money in translating them. As a result both India and Pakistan became borrowers and users of knowledge for a while without actually absorbing any of it into the fabric of their indigent knowledge base. This is the reason why we are having such difficulty producing real Ph. D level institutions. And this is the primary reason why foreign Ph. D graduates settled in Pakistan cannot seem to get any real research institution estabilished inspite of generous government funding.

It is obvious that where knowledge is absorbed into the local knowledge base it has a better chance of developing and growing. For example the gun copying industry in the tribal areas, the surgical tools and cutlery industry in Gujranwalla and the small scale electrical appliance industry also in Gujranwalla requires no dependance on English based knowledge for its transmission and dissemination and has flourished tremendously and has grown into a hugely successful small scale industry. And most of all has been resilient to political and economic upheavels.

Will it be worth while to invest time and money at this juncture of Pakistan to change the medium of education in Science and Technology institutions to Urdu? Please respond.