By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – One of Pakistan’s largest education foundations has introduced the Turkish language as an elective subject in its schools and colleges across the country.
Ghazali Education Foundation and Yunus Emre Institute Pakistan inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the capital Islamabad last week, under which the latter will provide support vis-a-vis preparation of Turkish language courses and teaching.
The executive director of Ghazali Education Foundation, Aamir Anjum Jafri, and the head of Yunus Emre Institute Pakistan, Halil Tokar, signed the MoU.
“There are two main objectives of introducing the Turkish language in our educational institutes. First, to educate Pakistani students about the centuries-old historical and cultural relations with Türkiye, and secondly to enable them to get a share in growing Turkish markets and corporate sector,” Jafri told Anadolu.
Also, he added, it will also help break the “language barrier,” and bring the people of the two countries further closer.
Endorsing the views, Tokar said that aside from teaching Turkish to Pakistani students, their Turkish counterparts are also taking an interest in learning Pakistan’s national language Urdu.
He said that a vibrant Urdu Department has been functioning at Istanbul University for the last 115 years.
Ghazali Education Foundation, a non-profit organization, is currently running 825 schools and colleges across Pakistan with a student and teacher strength of 125,000 and 5,000 respectively.