NEED FOR FOCUS ON UNREACHED URDU LINGUISTIC MINORITY IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGING LEARNER AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Urdu is a language which has extensively suffered after independence and partition of India. The so called official language of India in British period lost its status and confined its position to the Muslim minority; thereby it became isolated, marginalized. The fate is sealed when it comes to official patronage due to lack of official status. Added to this status, the elite Urdu population prefers other medium institutes of teaching and learning which includes English or local or state languages for their academics. Thus, the scope is further reduced for marginalized underprivileged Urdu population. This group of masses looks towards Urdu as a medium of learning. The Urdu speaking population is thus, a larger group which remains unreached and needs special focus. The stakeholders are scattered across the length and breadth of nation and there is only one medium i.e. distance education which can satisfy all the members. The Distance Education or popularly called as Open and Distance Learning is an instructional delivery system which bridges this gap between the learner & educational resources. It provides access to all categories of learners specifically geographically separated, unreached, underprivileged by opening the doors of education & reaches the learner at their door step or fingertips. Different technological innovations and methodologies are being utilised during the facilitation of teaching learning process. The world is now getting changed into a globalised society. That is why the learning is open to all but, ultimately the learners have to compete larger global community after completing their education. They are expected to learn various concept, higher order thinking process, adjustment, exploration of knowledge to meet the requirements of globalised society. The print and non-print medium is used for transacting curriculum content and other learner support. The social networking sites reduce the gap among learners, computer brings the information at fingertips. The teacher is available in the form of audio or video lessons. Tutoring can be done on-line in conferences (audio or video) or off-line through email, letter or postal. There is also provision of face to face counselling and as well as synchronous counselling through mobile. Universities are coming up with concepts like online registration, online examination. The learning is being made available based on learner requirement and strategy being proposed is cafeteria approach. In these changing contexts, there is dearth of institutes which are offering education in Urdu medium at school and college (or university) levels. The conventional or face-to-face system falls short of expectations as the community is widely spread. The initiatives taken up by government by opening University like MANUU which is trying to meet the requirement of Urdu population is quite significant. The distance mode programmes of this University are shaping to fulfil educational requirements of Urdu community in changing scenario. The authors try to examine various aspects related to these areas in their paper.

Keywords: Urdu linguistic minority, changing learner and learning environment

Urdu – a language of geographically widespread community

Urdu is a language with a multilingual and multi-cultural heritage. Its roots in Arabic, English, Persian, Sanskrit and other languages give Urdu a diverse linguistic structure and body of sounds. It is given official status along with 15 Indian languages in eighth schedule of constitution after independence of India. The Press note issued by Government of India on July 14, 1958 cleared status of Urdu as it says, "Urdu is officially and constitutionally recognised as one of our national languages and the various provisions that apply to these languages also apply to Urdu." Presently, the 2001 Census list about 29 languages spoken in India. The major spoken language listed is Hindi has share of 43.03% of Indian population and rest of the languages have less than double digit share of speakers each. Urdu is spoken by (5.01%) of the Indian population. Almost 45% of Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak other local languages like Bangla, Kashmiri, Malyalam, Telugu, Tamil, Gujrati, Assamese etc. Thus, Urdu cannot claim itself to be a language of Muslims. Further, the analyses of data of Urdu speakers (Urdu mother tongue) for per 10,000 state’s principal language speakers for about 22 states/UT indicates that the Urdu speakers range from 1861 (Jammu and Kashmir) to no Urdu speakers in Hindi speaking states (like Rajasthan, MP, UP etc.). But, actually the Urdu speaking population is also present in these states. In any case it is understood that the Urdu speaking population is present across the nation, but the number of speakers is not as high as the concerned state’s principal language speakers. This makes it a minority language in almost all of the states spread widely across the nation.

A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.

Moreover, among these the Urdu speaking minority students who are willing to acquire higher education in Urdu medium is still small. This discourages the state and union governments to initiate higher education in Urdu Medium. This adds to the fate of Urdu linguistic minority, which remains unreached from the fruits of education. In this situation, the best alternative available to impart higher education to the geographically scattered Urdu population is Open Distance Learning.

Need for education of Urdu linguistic minority

Education is the key to all human advancement including economic and social uplift; hence it is a potential site for political contestation and struggle. (Hasnain Imtiaz, 2007) It empower the community and make it able to avail the benefits from the socio-economic politics of the Government. Education is the tool from which we can survive and cultivate our language. Fate of any language, its growth and development, largely depends upon its use in the domain of education. (Hasnain Imtiaz, 2007) Education helps in preservation of culture development of community. Education is also an instrument for raising standard of living and economic status by raising individuals in professional life. Thus, the backwardness of an individual or community can be countered through use of education.

Urdu Learner in traditional and ODL system

The traditional learner is one who is continuing education in his formal system who learns through traditional colleges following patterns like 10+2+3 or concerned state’s higher education pattern. Learner is young individual free from family, professional burden and is having complete support of the family at home, teachers & peers at the learning institution. The library, laboratory facilities and persons working at these places help and guide him on various occasions’ right from admission till the award of degree. However, in case of open distance learning the learner is having flexibility of age, qualification, sex, place, time etc. Therefore, the learners are from varied backgrounds. The learners might be aware of Urdu language to certain extent or completely Urdu language only. These learners may have discontinued their education at school or graduation level, just before joining ODL system or long before joining it. That is they may be dropouts from formal system of education. In the PG programme the learner are found to be the graduates from regular as well as ODL systems. They may be having poor study habits and may lack planning. These learners are adults and having their own complex problems for study at home and outside. The ‘Pardah’ system which is being followed among Urdu speaking Muslims women is a hurdle for going to regular on campus study, where as the ODL system has opened new avenues for such female aspirants. The in-service learners who lack time for regular education also form part of ODL. The learners in Urdu medium lack knowledge of technological innovations, which keep them away from information being generated across the globe. Thus, we see that the regular protected traditional environment for learner is being replaced by student centric open & distance environment, which can also fulfil academic and professional needs of learners.

Futuristic mode of education

Present generation of learners are in the information communication technology era. The information is being processed and pass quickly through the super highway of internet and networking. The learner has flexibility to opt for large numbers of institutions/universities just by sitting at his home. Learner can opt from hundreds of courses available from certificate to master degree and some times research programmes from these institutes. The learner has the facility of reading the material through Self Learning Materials (SLM) in print format. They are not restricted only to these SLMs but they are also provided with non-print material like audio, video, graphic lessons. The institutes provide on-air facilities of these programmes like in case of live radio, television and teleconferencing. These programmes are also being placed at their respective websites for the accessibility of learners through online for their reference in their leisure time. The recorded copies for these programmes are also being provided to the study centres regional centre. Thus, the learner has a specific learning environment for a particular technological intervention. The learning environment changes during the usage of pre-recorded programmes at different places like study centre or at his home. In the former place has provision for interaction with the counsellors and at the latter learner has to make an attempt to understand the given content on his/her own. The learner can access any of the e-resources through internet. However, in this learning environment a tutor/guide can help to differentiate between the available information and knowledge required by the learner. The learner needs to have a contact with his fellow learners. In new generation of learners they need not have physical contact or proximity where as the social networking websites can help them to be in touch with each other. They can share academic and administrative concerns and counsellors can guide on all such matters. The changing learning environment also provides opportunity for cafeteria based learning. In this system the learner can opt different courses for completing a degree as he can order any dish (item) to complete his meals in hotel. The universities and institutes are coming up with online registration, online examinations which is being done by collecting online fees. The students have to gear up to meet these requirements. Particularly the Urdu linguistic minority students are to be made aware of these facilities. The Urdu institutes are also required to meet the global & changing demands in the learning environment.

Expectation of Urdu Community and role of MANUU

The Government of India has taken various initiatives for stream lining marginalized and unreached sections of the society. Opening of MANUU is one such step for mainstreaming Urdu population. MANUU is offering education through both campus and distance mode that is it is a bimodal university. Distance mode is most suitable to reach geographically wide spread Urdu population. The distance mode programmes of MANUU have over 1.60 lakhs students on rolls in various programmes at 174 study centres and 7 programme centres spread through out the country. The University has 9 Regional Centres and 7 Sub-Regional Centres in India. An examination centre is operating at Jeddah (KSA), and it plans to establish similar centres in Dubai, UK, Canada & US. This clears the efforts being made by MANUU to reach unreached Urdu population. The carriers 360 of out look group, August 2010 issue has placed DDE, MANUU at 6^th rank among all the institutes/universities of distance education in India based result & efficiency, programme delivery, enrolment and quality of SLM etc. This clears that the university is also making efforts of provision for quality education.

Conclusion

Urdu is a language which is widely spoken and understood by many in India. But when it comes to claiming of Urdu as mother tongue it gets less number of claimers and thereby it gets linguistic minority status. Opening the doors of higher education to these linguistic minority learners in traditional mode is more complex as the population is scattered in minority throughout the nation. Thus, ODL claims to be the best mode of imparting education. However, the characteristics of learners in Urdu medium are quite complex and they still lag behind the normal adult learners in the mainstream. At the same time the learning environments in learning ODL are changing rapidly. Therefore, the ODL institutes offering higher education in Urdu like MANUU have to make judicious balance. Efforts in these directions help us to reach Urdu linguistic minorities in rapidly changing learner & learning environment.