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Every year hundred of Punjabi
books appear on the book stalls. It is a different matter that
the print order for most of the Punjabi books is not more than
250 copies per edition. A South Indian friend of mine tells that
in Tamil some of the popular writers are published in hundreds
of thousands. What a contrast! Nevertheless there is no dearth
of the people in Punjab eager to take to the pen irrespective of
the number of the readers. One thing that rankles with an
objective observer is that the Punjabi world of letters is
over-crowded with poets, novelists, storywriters and so on but
there are very few writers who can teach how to read and write
the Punjabi language. So far there is no authentic descriptive
grammar of Punjabi, nor any worthwhile dictionary of Punjabi
usage. The spelling system of the language is yet to be
standardised. Most of the Punjab writers are indifferent to such
requirements. Some of them even actively discourage the scholars
engaged in this kind of work. There are very few standard
Punjabi primers for the beginners which can be used to teach the
language on sound linguistic principles.
An editor
friend of mine once revealed that even the nationally decorated
Punjabi writers commit stupid mistakes while writing in Punjabi
and he has to spend a lot of time while touching up their copies
for publication in his paper. Students learning Punjabi in
schools have to fall back on dull and drab primers and text
books printed on equally dull paper.
Many
illustrious Punjabi writers and veteran professors have in
recent times fervently espoused the cause of the Punjabi
language in a bitter debate unleashed by the Punjab government
decision of introducing English as one of the subjects at the
elementary level. No doubt the decision to introduce English
without creating necessary infrastructure is fallacious but the
champions of the Punjabi language, despite their scholarship and
passion for the cause, have done nothing in a scientific manner
to facilitate the learning of this language for the children in
the elementary schools.
Recently this
columnist examined the papers for an essay competition for
graduate and post-graduate students and was surprised to find
that the students writing their essays in Punjabi (their mother
tongue) were the worst. Those writing in Hindi and English were
equally good, some of them every showed flashes of a brilliance.
Now against this dismal background if somebody does something
positive to alleviate the agony the child learner, he should be
encouraged.
To write for
the child is not a child’s play have many writers steer clear
of it and write only for adults. A team of scholars led by Avtar
Singh Dhaliwal from government college of Education, Chandigarh
has brought out a series of primers and text books to provide
for the need of Punjab learners in elementary classes. "Maulisiri
Punjabi Path-Bodh" and Maulsiri Punjabi Path Pustak
1-5" (Orient Longman, New Delhi) are different from the
other such attempts in the field in more than one way. The
authors claim that while doing this arduous work they have had
in mind the researches made in the field of language acquisition
and language teaching keeping in view the multi-lingual
socio-cultural environment of the young students in the towns of
Punjab and outside Punjab.
The present day
learner in the towns now lives in a strange linguistic
environment where he has to handle simultaneously at least three
languages. Along with his own native language, the child from
the middle class has a strange dose of English and popular
Hindi. The electronic media has been playing an important role
in the lives of present-day children. In such a situation the
child trying to acquire the four basic skills of language —
listening, speaking, reading and writing needs culturally
relevant matter so that he can immediately recognise the images
and form concepts in the proper socio-cultural context.
The linguistic
structure used in these series has been taken from the life of a
middle class child in the cities. The exercises appended at the
end of each lesson give an impetus to the curiosity of the child
so that he can then explore the field himself which may enhance
his communication potential in the language. The authors have
tried to inculcate healthy values in the child by leading him
closer to nature and away from the din of electronic media.
There are quite a few lessons based on Indian cultural heritage
but such material has been consciously handled so that the child
does not become superstitious or irrational. Many traditional
tales and fables have been used to make the lessons more
interesting but they have been modified here and there so that a
healthy attitude towards life and nature is developed among the
children.
Almost every
lesson has appropriate visual illustrations which make learning
a little more engaging. Some lessons are from history while some
others are from the world of science and technology. There are a
few lessons based on adventures and explorations. Since most of
the lessons have been devised keeping in view the need of the
middle class town children, these series may not be very useful
for the rural children. Even otherwise poor children in the
villages or in town slums cannot buy such costly books. They
have to depend mostly on the cheap books produced by the state
education boards. Even in the production of books for children
the class angle dominates. One can see the sharp division in
Indian society by scrutinising the quality of text books
available to different sets of children in society.
If we continue with the present
system, we may not ever provide really universal education with
equal inputs to all the children living in different
socio-economic settings. This kind of growing dichotomy in
society does not augur well and it may lead to tragic
consequences in the future.
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