Govt schools to have weekly spoken English classes

The aim is to help them speak English fluently on par with their convent peers

Shyam Sundar Vattam 

NT Bengaluru

You may soon hear students at Government schools trying to hone up their English conversation skills. The Department of Public Instruction is experimenting with this move in order to improve the English oral communication skills of the government school students in the state.

A weekly spoken English class has been included in the current academic guide under the school special programme. Students from 1st to 10th standard would attend 40-minute spoken English classes once a week.

The Department has instructed the school authorities to get the required Spoken English handbook to hold the special classes from a team of English language resources teachers of the government primary school. They must get the handbook prepared in such a way that it must help students to speak English fluently on par with their urban counterparts. Currently, the students hailing from rural areas find it difficult to crack competitive exams such as JEE, NEET, CET since they require an expertise in English language.

The Department of Public Instruction has chalked out a special programme to help them improve their spoken English skills. A senior officer in the Education Department told News Trail that as part of this programme, the students would be taught conversation, dialogues, script, role play, storytelling, situation explanation and experience sharing. Each subject must be picked for every week and the students must be made to converse in English with teachers.

This programme was apart from the classes on English language on the third period of every Saturday. The students must try to speak in English without mixing any other language. By doing so, they will be able to converse fluently in English and boost their self-confidence. Training would be imparted only by English language teachers, but the schools can use the services of the expert resource persons wherever required. He said teams of students would be formed and every child would be trained to introduce his/her school in English language to the visitors.

The flex would be specially prepared for the students from LKG to NaliKali classes. It may be the chart on the human anatomy, fruits, vegetables, colours, vehicles and colour every item colourfully but leave the space on its names so that students must identify and tell it in either English or Hindi. Filling the empty spaces on the colourful charts must be part of the regular activities for the kids.

This would help students to use English and Hindi easily. Currently, English is introduced as a subject from the first standard in government schools but it was the endeavour of the Education Department to make the students of government schools to converse efficiently in English language just like students of convents in urban areas. The officials are keeping their fingers crossed regarding its outcome.