Tendencies of Teachers towards Pashto Medium of Instruction in Government Primary Schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

In this paper the tendencies of teachers towards Pashto medium of instruction in government primary schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were examined. A sample of 600 government primary school teachers was used, whereas 100 teachers were selected randomly from each sampled districts i.e. Swat, Malakand, Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat and Bannu. Questionnaires based on two and three points scale were used as an instrument to know the tendencies of teachers. The data was tabulated and then analyzed by using chi-square and percentages, while calculated through SPSS. It was found that Pashto was the mother tongue of an overwhelming majority of teachers and nearly all teachers were able to understand Pashto. Therefore maximum teachers had literacy (reading, writing and speaking ability) and knowledge of all subjects in Pashto as well. However, there was a shortage of trained teachers in Pashto and majority of them disfavored Pashto medium teachers’ training. Pashto medium of instruction was opposed by majority of teachers as compared to Urdu (national) and English (international) language. The other reasons of opposition were in capability of Pashto language to help students in obtaining the future education, superior jobs and its use in non- Pashto speaking areas.