Recently, there has been a spate of social media comments about the place that decommissioned. Fact Check: HEC’s Claims on Urdu Removal Examined; as a compulsory modern language in the undergraduate curriculum according to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. Under instructions of Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. Such a claim has raised much ire among the users. With most accusing the new regime of taking the war against the national language to another level.
Exposer of Misinformation
But at the same time, these are unproven accusations that have been removed from the premise that they have been made. On September 28, during the video interview, a Facebook user published a VIDEO that the Federal Minister for Education. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, deleted the Urdu language from the undergraduate syllabus. This video showed interest in HEC’s new undergraduate policy, which bypassed the subject of Urdu and made every reader ask for more information or details. The post received about 5000 views and was shared more than 20 times.
Other posts have similarly accused the HEC of eliminating Urdu from higher education. Pages of the same nature appeared, making similar claims day after day last week.
Reality
HEC officials and administrators of three universities explain that Urdu has never been made an obligatory subject for undergraduate degrees in Pakistan. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, the Chairman of the HEC, while talking over the phone to Geo Fact Check to clarify the issue, said, “This news is Incorrect”. He further shared a press release of the HEC, which was running on September 26, such claims as these are “misleading”.
It further stated that ‘it is reiterated that up to the undergraduate level. Urdu has not been made compulsory, even for a day. But even then, it was obligatory to learn Urdu as a subject till intermediate FA, FSc, which is still being practised.’
Also, while graduation does not require students to take up the language of Urdu. They are still being offered a specialist degree course in the language. The course outlines of the program can be accessed from the HEC websites.
University Administrators Confirm the Facts
University of Punjab’s Public Relations Officer, Dr Khurram Shahzad, stated. I would like to clarify that it has never been a compulsory subject at the graduate level. It has always been an elective subject.” Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ali, Director of Academics at Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad. Stated that educational institutions have never made Urdu a compulsory subject at any stage unless a student chooses a degree in Urdu. He added that he has been involved in this issue for six years now.
At last, although angered many community members about the future standing of Urdu regarding higher education policies. The arguments regarding its erasure from the two-year degree program are baseless. Then, many HEC and university officials clarified that English was not optional for undergraduates. So there was no need to be a sword in the national tongue. We must be careful and ensure that vital information, or news in this case. Is not simply issued through online networks, as these false claims can easily incite a frenzy.
