The language enigma

By Zubeida Mustafa

The fate of the National Education Policy (NEP) continues to hang in the balance. A revised draft was to have been taken up by the cabinet in early August but it was not. Meanwhile, some NGOs working in the education sector and grouped under the umbrella body called the Pakistan Coalition for Education reacted strongly to the new document. This should have provided an opportunity for a public debate on the policy.

The NEP’s current draft speaks of the government developing “a comprehensive plan of action for implementing the English language policy in the shortest possible time, paying particular attention to disadvantaged groups and lagging behind regions.” Fine. There is no disputing the now universally accepted fact that English is the international language of diplomacy, science, commerce and communication. It must be learnt.

Our English-language teaching is not at all up to the mark and the NEP admits that. Hence the problem has to be addressed mainly by training good English-language teachers. Correct.

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A good day for the English language

By Eddie V Garcia, ProEnglish USA, EddieNow.com

Well, the day finally came for me to actually be a first-hand witness of why knowing and understanding English is so vitally important when one gets a driver's license.
My Florida license expires next month and I will be on tour so renewing it in Florida will be impossible. So I decided to finally get a Tennessee license although I still claim Florida as my legal domicile.

I gathered my official documents as required by the state of Tennessee for anyone getting a TN license for the first time. It was a busy day at the DMV (when isn't it a busy day) but after furnishing my official documents proving my citizenship, my valid FL license, my TN residency, a valid SS card and other documents, I was given a "deli-ticket" styled number to be called up.

As friendly as I am, I befriended the DMV clerk. When my number was called and I began talking about the challenging times that are hard for government workers and we began to chat about the government doling out money for this and for that. The state employee agreed that too much tax dollars are being "given" away willy-nilly.

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