On March 9, 2024, in her address to an event on the Punjab Culture Day, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced the launch of Punjabi language as a subject in schools across the province. 

A year after the announcement, it may seem premature to assess the progress but it has been 55 years since the Punjabi language was introduced in the province’s higher educational institutions. Where does this language stand today at these institutions? An assessment could perhaps better reflect the situation of the mother tongue in the educational system of the province. 

The language of Punjab was first introduced at its oldest and most prestigious educational institute, Punjab University, in 1970, 23 years after independence. This happened when the prominent figure in Punjabi language and literature, Faqir Mohammad Faqir, staged a protest by lying down on the floor of the vice chancellor’s office. According to his biographer, Junaid Akram, as a result of this unique protest, the MA Punjabi classes were launched at the university’s Oriental College. 

Later, Punjabi was also introduced at the BA and Intermediate levels. When the higher education system was revamped to align with international standards, converting a two-year graduation degree into a four-year programme, Punjabi continued to be offered as a subject at the university level.

Students’ declining interest in Punjabi

According to the Punjab Higher Education Commission, there are currently 34 public universities in the province but only six of them offer a four-year BS Punjabi programme to their students. Even at these universities, students’ interest in this subject seems to be constantly declining.

This year, the PU has only five students enrolled in the BS Punjabi programme. Similarly, Government College University Lahore also has just five students. Government College University Faisalabad had no students in this programme last year but this year there were eight students in the BS programme.

 Five years ago, five universities had a total of 142 students enrolled in the BS Punjabi programme, but by 2024, this number has dropped to 55, with half of them (28) studying at Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib.

Link to job opportunities—only way to survive

Faiza Rana, the president of the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association, states that the BS Punjabi programme is offered at only a few colleges while BS programmes in Urdu and English are available in every other college. 

“When BA was a two-year degree, students could opt for Punjabi as an elective subject but now Punjabi is not even offered as an elective subject at universities,” she says.

Dr Nighat, who has been associated with teaching Punjabi since 1996 and has served as principal in several public colleges, believes that many colleges do not teach Punjabi because there is no demand for it. 

“Higher education authorities decide where to offer Punjabi based on feasibility, considering the demand in a particular area.”

Dr Asma Ghulam Rasool, an assistant professor at the Punjabi Department at Govt College University Faisalabad, recalls that when she was a student, there were 200 students in Punjabi classes but now the number of students in the class is less than 10.

She says there is a lot of hullabaloo on social media about saving Punjabi and seminars and conferences are held in the name of the mother tongue but no practical steps are being taken to promote the language. “Punjabi can only be saved by linking it to job opportunities, not fairs and festivals.”

Dr Asma suggests that the HEC should make Punjabi a mandatory one-credit hour course for all BS students, just like English and Pakistan Studies.

Number of students cut by half   

The decline in students’ interest in Punjabi is also evident from the data of the boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISEs).

According to the data from the five educational boards of Punjab – Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, and Dera Ghazi Khan – obtained by Lok Sujag, the number of students who appeared for the Punjabi exam in 12th grade exam was 55,112 in 2017, which has halved to 24,528 in 2024.

(Data from 2020 and 2021 has not been included due to changes in the examination system owing to Covid-19. Although complete data from three other educational boards, namely Rawalpindi, Sargodha, and Bahawalpur, is unavailable, the available data also shows a decline in Punjabi enrollment trends.)

State patronage of Urdu a major hit to Punjabi language 

Dr Naveed Ahmad Shahzad, the director of the Department of Punjabi and Cultural Studies at PU, believes that one reason for the less number of students in Punjabi is the absence of teachers at colleges. 

“There are several colleges in Punjab which have no post for a Punjabi teacher. At Emerson College, Multan, there were two positions for Punjabi, which have now been reduced to one, while in Bahawalpur FC College, the Punjabi position has been abolished.”

According to the College Information System website, there are a total of 876 colleges in Punjab, and only 251 positions for Punjabi teachers, of which 56 are vacant. This means that, on average, only one in five colleges has a teacher of Punjabi.

Dr Naveed also complains about the lack of teachers at universities, stating that two lecturer positions at his department at PU were advertised four years ago, but the interviews have not yet been done. 

“In recent years, six senior faculty members left, but only one new member was appointed. Currently, the Institute of Punjabi at the Oriental College is running with three part-time teachers.”

 He points out that across Pakistan, no college is without an Urdu department. 

“Where advertisements are published for 80 lecturers in Urdu, only eight positions are advertised for Punjabi. Had Urdu not been linked to employment over the last 70 years, it would have been difficult for it to survive,” Dr Naveed says.

Dr Zaheer Wattoo, an assistant professor at Government College University, Lahore, also views the state patronage of Urdu as one of the reasons for the decline of Punjabi language. He believes that because of Urdu’s colonial history and its association with the concept of Pakistani nationalism, the state has always preferred Urdu over Punjabi in the province. 

“The seriousness of the state about Punjabi can be gauged from the fact that the government funding for the Punjabi Adabi Board is just Rs50,000 annually, which includes rent for the building, staff salaries, and other expenses.” 

He laments that whenever efforts are made to draw the government’s attention to Punjabi, the same response is heard: “What is the use of teaching it?”

Punjabi -- last but not the first choice of students

Dr Mujahida Butt, who has been involved in Punjabi research and teaching since 1992 and whose mother was also a professor in the Punjabi department at the Lahore College for Women University, says Punjabi degrees are the last choice for students. 

“When they cannot get admission to other subjects, they opt for Punjabi, and this is due to the inferiority complex of the parents,” she says.

Dr Faisal Bari, head of the Department of Education at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), believes that the reason behind parents’ decisions is not just an inferiority complex but concerns related to employment. According to Dr Bari, there are solid arguments in favour of teaching Punjabi or studying it in the field of education, but parents ask why they should teach their children Punjabi when all higher education is in Urdu or English and every good job requires proficiency in English language. 

“We don’t have a satisfactory answer to this question. We should decide either to hold exams like CSS in Punjabi or accept that English has now become our language since it has been in this region for 200 years.”