Tuesday

16


July , 2019
Communicative English should get more importance in governmental schools
12:43 pm

Ellora De


English is taught as a second language in most government and government-aided schools in India.

It has been observed by educationists that when students from non-English medium schools compete with students from English medium schools, they lag behind due to their non-proficiency in communicative English. The situation is glaring in West Bengal.

Manish Jain, Principal Secretary, School Education, West Bengal, informed BE, “Traditionally in the state of West Bengal, we did not have English in primary level in government, government-aided and government-sponsored schools. But with the coming of the new government in 2011, it has started focusing on English in schools. By now we have more than thousand government schools which are running as dual medium schools (Bengali and English). From the coming academic year, the state government has also decided to run English medium schools. We have started with about 45 English medium government schools from the primary stage. These schools will go up to the higher secondary level. Simultaneously, all schools in the state have also been allowed to run a parallel English section for class I to class IV.”

He added, “Keeping in mind the socio-economic background of government school students, we have launched a comprehensive software to improve communicative English in government schools in West Bengal. We have tried it on a pilot basis among 700 schools, from 2015-2017 and the feedback of the system is good. Now we want to initiate this in phases for the 4000 schools in the state and we will include all the secondary and higher secondary schools. We have already covered around 2000 secondary and higher secondary schools in the state with K1 facilities. K1 is a multiuser device with which you can convert any wall into a ‘smart wall’ so that it becomes more interactive. As part of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme, about 5591 secondary and higher-secondary schools have been given a minimum 10 computers with projectors. The government is trying to cover the rest of the secondary and higher secondary schools by 2020-21.”

There are several reasons that make English essential for communication across India. Nanda Chakravarty, a retired English teacher of Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls’ High School, Kolkata, said in this context, “Communicative English is already there in government schools, but sufficient stress is not given to it from the primary level. This can only be encouraged by trained teachers who are able to teach communicative English in the correct method. Great stress should be given to oral communication from the primary level through story-telling, situational-dialogues, recitation and at higher levels through debates and discussions. Schools should ensure that due emphasis is given to communicative English by teachers as well as students who often tend to neglect it.”

BE spoke to various school teachers on how communicative English can be promoted and some of the suggestions are listed below —

l               Making reading of English newspapers compulsory on a weekly basis for all classes

l               Holding frequent library classes and encouraging students to read English books

l               Organising English dictionary reading games

l               Organising word games and encouraging students to take part in word puzzle games

l               Using technology and gadgets to promote English reading and speaking

l               Having a slot for an English programme in the annual cultural programme of every school

l               Encouraging students to initiate English wall magazines

l               Encouraging students to listen to recorded material to perfect their usage and pronunciation of

English words through initiating language laboratory.

 

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