The Union government has decided to replace difficult words in the Urdu language with simplified terms. Just ahead of the annual review of National Monitoring Committee on Minority Education, the government on January 15 asked National Council of Education Research and Technology (NCERT) to revise its Urdu Syllabus for schools.
“The words like ‘thermometer’ in Urdu are ‘Ala-e-paimaieshe-hararat’ – even difficult for a Urdu speaker to decipher. Therefore the ministry has decided to revise the course with more simplified version. The words will be replaced with some commonly used English or Hindi words,” an official in the HRD ministry was quoted as saying.
Similarly, the ministry identified words like ‘surgeon’, which is ‘Mahir-e-Jarahat’ and ‘military science’ or ‘Ilim-e-Zarab’. These words are difficult for a common Urdu speaker and needs to be replaced with commonly used words, the official said.
The Ministry has gone through the entire syllabus and reached to a conclusion that there are some words that are not in use by the regular Urdu speakers.
“Languages do get influenced by the culture and environment. Urdu has many Persian words and similarly Hindi speaking people use certain Urdu words frequently during their conversation. So, if we will incorporate the simplified and commonly used words that will further popularise the language,” he added.
“Syllabus is not for the seasoned Urdu speakers, it is designed for the learners who are young and get little atmosphere unlike past to understand the words those are not used much these days. So, we want them to offer it with the meaning and simplify a bit so that it can be more popular,” Ministry sources said.
“The ministry has communicated about the problem and given them (NCERT) examples also. Now they have to ensure that the students get the revised syllabus,” said a highly placed source in the ministry.