Use of Arabic rises on council agenda

Concern over falling use of the language prompts Ministry to promise action.

ABU DHABI // Flicking through Tuesday’s Federal National Council Arabic language report shows how the country was working at preserving Arabic long before the council expressed worry about its diminishing usage.

As early as 2003, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Society Development worked with the Arabic Language Protection Society to draw up a draft law to protect Arabic. The law was studied that year but was not put to the Cabinet.

After a ministry reshuffle in 2006, the draft law was finally sent to the Cabinet, but with no luck. As the constitution of the UAE clearly states that the country’s official language was Arabic, the Cabinet believed it waived any need for such a law.

In 2008, the issue came up again. That year was officially called the year of national identity by Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE. The Cabinet passed a decision requiring all government communications to be in Arabic.

But even with the Cabinet decision, the Arabic language continued to suffer. Government entities did not feel they were bound by the ruling and student’s Arabic grades were deteriorating in state and private schools.

State schools had shifted to teaching maths and science in English. State universities were also increasingly moving towards teaching in English.

As a result, the FNC gave the Government the needed nudge to push the law through.

The year following the Cabinet’s decision, the FNC said the Government needed to take urgent steps to preserve the Arabic language. That year they warned that English should not be taught in state schools at the expense of Arabic if the nation’s identity was to be preserved. At the time, however, no call was made for a federal law.

In the FNC, Dr Mohammed bin Ham (Abu Dhabi) argued that English courses at state universities were pushing students’ progress back. Sheikha Al Ari (UAQ) said the absence of a grading system at state schools meant children were passing early grades without a basic knowledge of the Arabic language.

Finally on Tuesday, the council presented its findings. A lack of a unified Government strategy and the lack of a law to preserve the country’s language was preventing the language from flourishing.

Some members said it was not easy for an Arab major to find work, which led to so many opting for an English education. A member in a former FNC council took the blame for the same reasons. But members realised that a compromise should not be made. Where Arabic is taught, it needed to be taught well and by qualified teachers.

Perhaps witnessing their children’s lack of ability to converse with senior family members in Arabic pushed them to realise the repercussions of their earlier decision, nevertheless it was enough to push members to call for the law at the FNC and finally getting Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Society Development, and head of the Arab Language Advisory Council, to promise to address all their concerns and the concerns of so many other other parents in the country.