Language Barrier in Education
Lost in Language: The Struggles of Pakistani Students in a Multilingual Maze In Pakistan, where linguistic diversity should be celebrated as a national strength, it has instead become a silent struggle—especially for students. From the earliest stages of life, children are caught in a confusing web of languages that do not align with their environment, educational system, or spiritual experience. This mismatch is far more than a second-language learning issue; it represents a deep-rooted crisis that hinders intellectual development, suppresses identity, and fractures the student’s connection with both society and self. To ignore this issue is to continue failing the very generation entrusted with the country's future. A child in Pakistan is typically raised in a mother tongue—Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraiki, or another regional language. This is the language of love, storytelling, and early thought. However, as the child steps into public life, especially in urban a...