Our Students Do Not Know Arabic Anymore

I was really shocked today! As I was teaching my fifth graders the decimal numbers, they started to question about the difference between the decimal point and the comma. When I explained for them that the former is for English decimal numbers and that the latter is for Arabic decimal numbers, they started to ask me about how to write Arabic numbers. As it is already known, today the students in our schools learn Math and Science in English starting from grade one. What was most shocking to me is that most of my students, if not all, did not know how to write the numbers in Arabic! They did not even know which one was number 5 and which was the zero. They were also unable to recognize the difference between number 2 and number 6... I felt really bad that we are getting away from our native language! I remember when I was a kid, I used to take Math and Science in Arabic till I reached grade 5, and I started taking subjects in English afterwards. I think this was better for us as Arab students because in this way, I believe, our students would learn at least the basics of their mother language.