Complaint to AQA about the poor standard of Punjabi in the UK

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

For those who feel the teaching tools and requirements are out of date this is the person hundreds of us need to petition to make any impact. I won't go into the details of my correspondence. Short version some old out date but apparently teacher qualified punjabis advise them on what to include especially re text books and fiction for A Level. They won't change anything as it goes in 7 year cycles but like the chicken and egg you can apply to join their examining vacancies for Punjabi ( There are none) but then have to be UK standard degree level teacher qualified and haveing taught for years just to have your voice heard,

 

Anyhow this is who you need to contact to make complaints or voice concerns about Punjabi education in the UK

 

Rhona Thomson

Curriculum Manager Languages AQA 01423 534 381

 

Counterintuitively  being a Sikh I feel in this case the problem is we keep the language 1) exclusively to Sikhs 2) In Gurdwaras and this is the problem,. We need to take it out of our religious insitutions and into the general schooling system and encourage non Punjabis to learn it in school. then and only then I think Punjabis will benefit from better trained teachers rather than learning it in the parents crèche / dumping ground in the gurdwaras where lets face it they are unqualified and only concerned with religion.

 

 

[Premi]

Simple but blunt question.

why would non-Sikhs want to learn Panjabi?

 

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

Saying Punjabi should only be learnt by Sikhs is like saying Spanish should only be learnt by Catholics and German only by,,,etc etc..That is the problem in our community, Sikhs but make up less than a third of Punjabis. If we only keep on looking at it through a religious lens we are killing a language that was there before Baba Nanak. He did not make it a language to communicate because it was Sikh, which it became the language of as one community of Punjabis. he made it the language he chose because it was the common tongue and most people were either Muslim or Hindu. Our Indian mind always thinks in these terms which is why we are killing all but frivolous part of our culture. The second reason is its only languages that are taught to majority that get good funding and interest and thrive in a country. So why learn French? We are not all communists like them? But we learn it because being bilingual improves everyone's chances in the world. Make Punjabi economically significant so the schools teach it. take it out of religious institutions,. Almost every Punjabi kid I have spoken to has said uneducated people teach them Punjabi in temples and its just a place to dup kids. 

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

2 hours ago, Premi said:

Simple but blunt question.

why would non-Sikhs want to learn Panjabi?

 

A lot of Punjabi speakers aren’t Sikh and many westerners are interested in Indian culture 

[Premi]

47 minutes ago, ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ said:

Saying Punjabi should only be learnt by Sikhs is like saying Spanish should only be learnt by Catholics and German only by,,,etc etc..That is the problem in our community, Sikhs but make up less than a third of Punjabis. If we only keep on looking at it through a religious lens we are killing a language that was there before Baba Nanak. He did not make it a language to communicate because it was Sikh, which it became the language of as one community of Punjabis. he made it the language he chose because it was the common tongue and most people were either Muslim or Hindu. Our Indian mind always thinks in these terms which is why we are killing all but frivolous part of our culture. The second reason is its only languages that are taught to majority that get good funding and interest and thrive in a country. So why learn French? We are not all communists like them? But we learn it because being bilingual improves everyone's chances in the world. Make Punjabi economically significant so the schools teach it. take it out of religious institutions,. Almost every Punjabi kid I have spoken to has said uneducated people teach them Punjabi in temples and its just a place to dup kids. 

 

5 minutes ago, ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ said:

A lot of Punjabi speakers aren’t Sikh and many westerners are interested in Indian culture 

Panjabi is rejected by Pakistani Panjabis in favor of Urdu and 'Shahmukhi' script. 

Westerners more likely would want to learn Hindi as it more widely spoken than Panjabi if they go to India.

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

1 hour ago, Premi said:

Hindi Is only spoken by 45% of India'spopulation. India's legal and economic language is English. Its is the only language understood in all of india Ironic as it means India is still really ruled by a Foreign power in that the law is all in English as is the constitution> Many white poeple i know in Canada and UK are surrounded by Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali speakers and these languages are spoken by 85% of Indians living outside of India. 45% of the UK Indian population is Punjabi. Hardly anyone has taken Hindi as an exam compared to the other languages ( see above charts and contact Cambridge board which is the only one examining Hindi in UK). Famously Stephen Gucciadi learnt Punjabi and became famous as the Punjabi speaking gora. I have spoken to him and despite his wife being Hindu he said he learnt Punjabi because that was the de facto main Indian language in the west.

Almost all Pakistanis I know speak Punjabi. Its only 7 % of Pakistan's population knows Urdu. I assume you are not Sikh and are from India so have no knowledge of actual life in the west?

1 hour ago, Premi said:

Panjabi is rejected by Pakistani Panjabis in favor of Urdu and 'Shahmukhi' script. 

Westerners more likely would want to learn Hindi as it more widely spoken than Panjabi if they go to India.

[Sajjan_Thug]

8 hours ago, ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ said:

 

Counterintuitively  being a Sikh I feel in this case the problem is we keep the language 1) exclusively to Sikhs 2) In Gurdwaras and this is the problem,. We need to take it out of our religious insitutions and into the general schooling system and encourage non Punjabis to learn it in school. then and only then I think Punjabis will benefit from better trained teachers rather than learning it in the parents crèche / dumping ground in the gurdwaras where lets face it they are unqualified and only concerned with religion.

Many good ideas you have.  
Here are couple of points to consider 

We should start with improving the religious institutions first because they are already dedicated and ready made group that teach Punjabi.  Improving and upgrading their knowledge will improve the standard of Punjabi for a segment of society. 

The religious and academic teachers of Punjabi need to be brought together to share ideas and work together to raise the standards.

Also, you need to have a ready made course curriculum for beginners, medium and advance students.  This way everything is standardized and organized.  This way everybody is taught to the same standards.  

[Premi]

On 8/23/2022 at 2:26 PM, ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ said:

Almost all Pakistanis I know speak Punjabi. Its only 7 % of Pakistan's population knows Urdu. I assume you are not Sikh and are from India so have no knowledge of actual life in the west?

I remember around 12 years ago watching a Pak Mirpuri/Panjabi channel called DM digital on Sky in UK.

They were scheduled to have a famous East Panjabi singer appear as a a guest. the singer arrived 1-2 hours late, straight from the airport. Either miscommunication on the time or he was just late. He apologised and said he came straight to studio without even eating.

the host was frustrated about the wait, but to show hostility changed from speaking Punjabi to Urdu.

Would need to change this type of mindset on the other side of the Panjab border

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:46 PM, Sajjan_Thug said:

Many good ideas you have.  
Here are couple of points to consider 

We should start with improving the religious institutions first because they are already dedicated and ready made group that teach Punjabi.  Improving and upgrading their knowledge will improve the standard of Punjabi for a segment of society. 

The religious and academic teachers of Punjabi need to be brought together to share ideas and work together to raise the standards.

Also, you need to have a ready made course curriculum for beginners, medium and advance students.  This way everything is standardized and organized.  This way everybody is taught to the same standards.  

These courses exists ie the AQA Curriculum. Rhona has said the AQA throw events online to get teachers to meet up every year. The issue is the GCSE standard assume the people teaching are UK teacher qualified to the same standard as those teaching French for example. But on speaking to many kids who have gone to the Gurdwara, the impression given is that the teaching staff is not that educated but are only volunteers. It is a deep rooted issue as when I spoke to University Professors in India they admitted that even in Punjab the only people who become teachers in village and town schools are those who are not that well educated in Punjabi so teach it wrong there and these same people normally only pursue being a Granthi or Punjabi teacher when they are not good at anything else. So if the standards there are low and we are getting those same people coming here and teaching...not good