Daily Times

Apart from an option of taking Islamic Studies papers in Urdu, the entire civil service examination is conducted in English. Many intellectually brilliant candidates are ousted from the competition just because of their lack of fluency in English — a foreign language

In my last article, I highlighted the role of parental background and educational opportunities in sustaining social injustice in Pakistan. The social and political elites of the country have used English as an instrument to access higher opportunities and widen the divide between a privileged minority and a disadvantaged majority. In Pakistan, both the public and private sector HR managers use English as a device to separate the wheat from the chaff in all higher civil service or private sector managerial positions. Even a Socratic intellect and knowledge would not help an Urdu-medium aspirant to get prestigious jobs in Pakistan. Conversely a mediocrity fluent in English would be quickly knighted. The global importance of English language cannot be denied. But does this argument justify lowering the ceiling of life opportunities for the less privileged who have limited opportunities to learn the language?

There is no distinction of public or private industries in this sorry state of affairs, but for the sake of brevity I will limit my argument only to civil service recruitment. English is used as the only medium for both written and interview parts of civil service competitive examination. During my schooling, in a conventional government school I can recall how both the teachers and students felt equally perplexed while learning English. At the same time children my age at elite schools were already reading Shakespeare. With such a difference when a prowess in a foreign language becomes a decisive factor, knowledge, intellect and originality of thought are often buried somewhere deep. The Article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan declares Urdu as the national language but in practice, English is the official language. In the civil service competitive examination, apart from an option of taking Islamic Studies papers in Urdu the entire civil service examination is conducted in English. Many intellectually brilliant candidates are ousted from the competition just because of their lack of fluency in English — a foreign language.

In India, the written examination and interview which decide a candidate’s position in order of merit can be taken in Hindi, English or any of the 22 regional languages listed in Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution

A few months ago, in the aftermath of a civil service examination result, there was an uproar in the media regarding the meagre 2.09 percent of candidates who passed the examination. Several analysts argue about the quality of higher education responsible for this poor result but hardly anyone noticed that 92 percent of the total candidates simply failed in the compulsory English paper whose foundations are generally laid in schools, and not in institutions of higher education. The result also showed that the real competition was between only 8 percent of the total candidates who could cross the rubicon of English language. Should such an exclusionary application of English language be acceptable in a truly independent country whose constitution promises social justice for all citizens? Before sounding judgemental I want to share the situation in some of our South Asian counterparts with whom we share a colonial past and institutional heritage.

According to Article 3 of the Bangladesh constitution the state language of Bangladesh is Bangla. The aspirants of a career in Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) are required to take an 1100 marks competitive examination. Apart from a compulsory English paper of 200 marks, the entire examination is in Bangla language. This favours Bangla medium candidates to such extent that recently the English medium educational background candidates have demanded to give them an option of taking the BCS examination in English. Is this not diametrically opposed to our situation? I In practice, English has ceased to be the language of officialdom in Bangladesh, but at least English is not the language of access to opportunities.

In India, Article 343 of the Indian constitution describes Hindi as the official language of the Indian Union. Like Pakistan and Bangladesh, English language is widely used in official business. But when it comes to access and opportunity, after some radical inclusionary steps taken quite recently, English language is no more a barrier for aspirants of a career in the civil service. In the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) the civil service main examination in India, and the competence of English language is assessed through a 300 marks paper but astonishingly this is considered only a ‘Qualifying Paper’ whose standard UPSC explicitly defines as ‘Matriculation or equivalent’ and marks obtained in this paper are not counted for final ranking. The rest of the written examination and interview which decide a candidate’s position in order of merit can be taken in Hindi, English or any of the 22 regional languages listed in Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution. Only a functional understanding of English is judged without eclipsing the prospects of success of the intellectually sound candidates who take examination in Hindi or even in their mother tongue.

A social order based on injustice leads to social unrest which makes conditions ripe for forces of extremism to exploit the situation. For a just social order the access to opportunities of upward social mobility should not be blocked by irrational barricades. Not only Urdu, but all the regional languages can also be made the medium of all types of recruitment examinations. This should also be the same for private sector jobs. Examples from other South Asian countries are evidence that it is possible to remove English as an impediment to social mobility while still retaining it as an instrument of access to global opportunities.

The writer works for the public sector and is a development policy analyst.

Published in Daily Times, September 20^th 2017.