The Impacts of English Literature in Pakistan

99.9% children who are attending any kind of schooling are ESL - English is a secondary language for them.
Have the educationists and parents given a thought how incoherent is the inclusion of English literature in English curriculum when children of age level 6 to 14 are still in the process of learning language (unfortunately, through grammar).

What does English literature curriculum in Pakistan consists of?
Novels and plays of William Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens mostly.
Questions and answers, RTC (reference to context), multiple choice, sequence of events, etc.

Who were these people?
The classic authors of their era from Europe - Oxford is cashing in their names through Pakistani parents.

Which era they belonged to?
William Shakespeare  1564 - 1616
Charles Dickens 1812 - 1870

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 - 1930

Even the latest one, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, died long before the man stepped on the moon, long before Bill Gates introduced Windows for common people, even long before when Japan was not bombed by America. After the introduction of Windows, the author-ship has changed from writing books to writing computer programs. 

What can a 5th Grader (age 10 or 11) learn from Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" or Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and "Mid-summer Night Dream"?

Great Expectations - a novel about a child who is raised by her brutal elder sister, he falls in love with a girl, he becomes rich for her and at the end his great expectations from life are doomed and he decides to spend an ordinary life.

A Mid-summer Night Dream - a play themed on feminism and love, fairies controlling lovers, comedy, etc.

Twelfth Night - a play based on romance and comedy.

What can 4th, 5th and 6th Graders (age 10 to 12) learn from Sherlock Holmes' adventures in a book form?


The Impacts of English Literature in Pakistan

1. The novels and plays were written for adults, not children.  So, basically, they shouldn't be the part of the curriculum till the child is considered an adult.
2. A novel is an idea, a plot, a theme - it is not grammar or language.  So, it should not be regarded as a resource for building vocabulary and absorbing language for children.  What is the purpose of including English literature in the syllabus - language?  Children in Pakistan cannot, because this is not the right age to impose philosophy of life on their little minds - the philosophy of the dealings of adults of an ancient non-Pakistani environment.
3. English literature diminishes students' creative skills and leaves them wandering into dark ages.  They have to read chapters over and over to grasp the sequence of events and understand the meaning of difficult words.
4. Children lose 90% of interest in the novel or play when they have to stop at every line and tell the meaning of difficult words and describe in their own words what is going on in the story - the story which is non-relevant to their culture, language and environment they are growing in.  The 10% interest remains because they know that nobody cares about their losing interest in the language and they have to pass the test anyway, so they try to memorize.  Students are not familiar with English names and places.  They pronounce them wrong and mostly can't figure out if it is a name of a place or a person.
5. Most English novels are based on romance, love and social injustices of the era which is not in relevance anymore, not even in Europe as I believe.  Children in Pakistan are still not allowed to talk about love, romance, marriage openly.  I wonder why parents allow them to be indulged into a book which discusses all these matters in English.  I think parents should at least once read these novels themselves and decide if they allow their children to read it or not.  
6. These novels are all fiction - a plot set by and characters created by a person who lived 100 or 200 years ago when the world was not attractive as it is now for children.  The theme of all these novels or plays are more philosophical than scientific.  The emotions, the phrases, the dialogues, the moral lessons, the enigmatic endings, all are inexplicable.  And I ask how many adults in Pakistan would dare to read Shakespeare and Charles Dickens for improving their language skills.
7.  Reference to Context (RTC) has proven to be the worst learning technique of all - a child has to read a novel or play over and over several times so he/she can find out who said what to whom for what reason.  This is an ill-treatment, a mental torture, thus, classrooms become torture cells for them.
8. Character sketch, another successful technique to destroy children's intellectual capabilities - Imagine a 10 to 14 year old child actually memorizing the novel more than 100 pages, from the beginning till end, just to figure out the positive and negative characteristics of so many characters.  Can adults do that?
9. Children are pressurized to do all the work in their own words, the character sketch, the RTC, the word meanings, the setting, the plot, etc.  Just give it a thought that how much vocabulary an ESL child in a non-linguistic environment (an environment where no language is given due importance) would have build by the age of 14 so he/she can write something to impress his/her teachers and parents?  Otherwise, they keep losing points and are considered non-educational buddies.
10. The assessments are given either every month or at the end of semester which is usually after 2 and half month.  The new trend of assessment demands students to be alert and show progress on daily basis.  Students are now being assessed on their classwork, homework and projects.  These marks are included in the report cards.  Those who have introduced this degenerating idea must evaluate their own daily performance comparing to children.  A child is expected to perform 100% on daily basis, behave 100% on daily basis and yet grow as an obedient person - in a society where children don't witness even .001 % adults behaving and performing even 10% of what they expect from their children.  This is the worst type of slavery imposed on children by their teachers and adults.
11. Consequently, English literature is helping children learning nothing.  It is deteriorating their learning skills and causing tiredness and dullness.   

Even if English literature is not taught the way it is being taught currently, what difference would it make?  How different would that way be from the current way?  Even then, will children be given time to understand whatever the idea is behind that novel or play?   Why do Pakistani children have to memorize the biographies of English writers at this young age?  Are Pakistani children aware of the biographies of their own parents?

Children in Pakistan are oppressed equally by school administrations and parents.  Cruel are those who do not raise their voice against this worst kind of oppression that is launched against the children of Pakistan.