পাকিস্তানের প্রথম শিক্ষা সম্মেলনে শিক্ষামন্ত্রী ফজলুর রহমানের উদ্বোধনী ভাষণ ও বিভিন্ন কমিটির সুপারিশসমূহ
Extract from the Inaugural Address of Fazlur Rahman, Minister for Interior, Information & Broadcasting and Education, Government of Pakistan delivered to the Pakistan Educational Conference held at Karachi from 27th November to 1st December, 1947
The language problem has long buffled our educationists for with the exception of Russia it is more complex in India than in any other country. In seeking a practical solution we will do well to study the Russian experimentation in this as in many other fields of education. With as many as 2000 groups of distinct nationality ranging from the highly civilised to tribes still in the primitive stage of devil-worship and with 200 languages and dialects some of which did not even have a written alphabet, to deal with, Russian statesmen and educationists had certainly a Herculean task to perform, but it is a tribute to their political sagacity that instead of forcing different national groups into narrow Russian cultural mould they have all such languages the medium of instruction as have showed some evidence of culture, of capacity to grow into a creative tool and to express thought processes.. Today education in Soviet Russia is carried on in no less than ninety languages. I commend the Russian example to you because it shows how diversity has been encouraged without endangering the fundamental unity of a common culture which has been ensured by the making of Russian as the first compulsory foreign language in all non-Russian school. We may not subscribe to the Russian ideology but we can certainly benefit from their handling of the linguistic problem. We in Pakistan must provide the maximum scope for growth to our provincial languages not merely as media of instruction but also as instruments for the dissemination of the culture they embody without at the same time sacrificing the unity of our common culture. To ensure this unity, we need a language for interprovincial communication and in this counexion the claims of Urdu call for special consideration. It is the special creation of Muslims in India and during the comparatively brief period of its existence it has shown an extraordinary vitality and sensitivity both as an instrument of communication and as a vehicle for the expression of the subtlest shades of thought and the most ethereal flights of fancy. The facility with which it can borrow and assimilate words from foreign language, its historic affiliations with Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and English and its high creative output in prose and poetry constitute to my mind unassailable grounds for its establishment as the ‘lingua franca’ of Pakistan.
Report of the Primary and Secondary Education Committee, 1947
Medium of Instruction : The Committee felt that the institution of a common language was essential to the maintenance of the new nation of Pakistan. The Committee agreed that the common language should be Urdu. Some members of the Committee suggested that Urdu should not only be the common language for Pakistan but it should also be the medium of instruction in each Province. Other members of the Committee, however, felt that the question of medium of instruction should be left to each Province to decide according to its requirements but that Urdu should be the second compulsory language in schools. The Committee were inclined to support the second view. The D. P. I., East Bengal, however, felt that Urdu should not be the compulsory second language and should be one of the option.
Resolutions on Joint Committee Recommendations
(ii) The conference discussed the implications of the problem and the recommendations of the committees in this behalf at great length. The delegates were unanimously of opinion that Urdu should be recognised as the lingua franca of Pakistan and that steps should be taken to ensure adequate facilities for its teaching and learning in the educational institutions of the country. It was pointed out that the introduction of Urdu as a compulsory language would be a natural corollary to its acceptance as the national language of Pakistan.
While some delegates maintained that it should be taught right from the beginning of the school stage so as to increasingly and progressively adopt it as the medium of instruction in the educational system, others maintained that it would be educationally unsound, particularly when the mother-tongues were sufficiently developed. They held that the mother tongues could flourish and develop side by side with the lingua franca and one need not throttle the growth of the other. Ultimately, the conference unanimously adopted the following resolutions :
This conference recommends to the Constitutent Assembly that Urdu should be recognised as the lingua franca of Pakistan. Resolved that Urdu must be taught as a compulsory language in schools, the stage of its introduction in the Primary Schools being left to the decision of the Provincial and States Governments. The Provincial and States Governments concerned will determine the medium or media of instruction at the school stage.
Proceedings of fhe Pakistan Educational Conference held at Karachi from 27th November to 1st December, 1947. Government of East Bengal, B-Proceedings, Bangladesh National Archives, Education Department, Bundle No. 92, April, 1953, Proceedings No. 769-94.
সূত্র: ভাষা আন্দোলনের দলিলপত্র – রতন লাল চক্রবর্ত্তী সম্পাদিত