Language of Instruction for Teaching Mathematics at Primary Level: Controversy in Pakistan

Abstract

One of the factors credited to the poor performance of students inPakistan is the medium of instruction used at primary level. More than70 languages are alive languages/spoken languages of Pakistan and itsgovernment is confused which language to select as MOI (medium ofinstruction) at primary level, i.e. Urdu which is the national language ofPakistan. This paper explores the MOI controversy in Pakistan it alsosought to explore the possibilities and effectiveness of using Englishversus Urdu as a medium of instruction for the teaching of Mathematicsin primary schools in Pakistan. A teaching experiment was conducted tocompare the use of English as a medium of instruction with Urdu asmedium of instruction in the teaching and learning of Mathematics tograde 3 class. t-test was applied to find of the difference of the progressbetween two groups, one group taught in Urdu as MOI and second inEnglish as MOI. Major findings of the research indicated that the use ofUrdu as a medium of instruction in the teaching of Mathematics toprimary school students had a more positive impact upon the teaching ofMathematics. This discussion contains language controversy from thepre-partition time (1835-1947) till date in different political regimes tounderstand the causes of disagreement upon the selection of a singleMOI in education. Applicable recommendations were made in the lightof the findings.