A shaky start, still more hurdles ahead

Sanjeev Singh Bariana in Chandigarh

Pooja, a 14-yeal-old student, despite being in Class IX, cannot write a simple sentence in English — “I love my mother”. Her school, Government Senior Secondary School, Paras Ram Nagar, Bathinda, is among the 2,750-odd schools chosen by the Department of School Education, Punjab, for introduction of English as a medium of instruction as a part of its Padho Punjab Padhao Punjab project. The scheme was introduced in April this year after a survey by Pratham, an NGO, working in the field of education. The NGO released the Annual Status of Education Report-Rural for 2017, in January this year.

The findings of the survey show that at least 20 per cent of students in rural government schools in the age bracket of 14 to 16 years cannot write a simple sentence in English. In fact, at least 6 per cent of the total children in this category cannot even spell ‘mother’. And out of the ones who know the basics, a sizeable number is not deft at its general usage. 

A major reason why such a large number of students, even at age 14, do not even know the basics of the language is that English was nowhere on list of subjects taught in primary and middle classes. Some of them come absolutely raw to their Class IX. In fact, it was only around 1997-1998 that English was introduced at the primary level. Before that the English alphabets were introduced in Class VI only. 

Accepting the missing link, Education Secretary (Schools), Krishan Kumar, has put 800 primary schools on the list of special schools, besides 1,953 middle, secondary and senior secondary schools that will use English as a medium of instruction.

The department, till 2008, did not have a separate cadre for English teachers. They were recruited as social sciences teachers (SST). At present, the department has 10,560 SST teachers against the sanctioned posts of 13,279. The department has also recruited 2,492 English teachers now despite 1,196 sanctioned posts. This number, however, is not sufficient if the objective is to be achieved. A large number of ordinary (other than adarsh and model) government schools do not have English teachers. Many other schools, which are managing with social sciences teachers, haven’t shown good results.

Principal of a newly converted English medium school in Mohali, says, “Yes, we are managing our English classes with SST teachers. Teaching any language is a specialised job and can best be done by an expert. A majority of social sciences teachers do not have any command over the language. A large number of ordinary government schools are working in virtually impossible conditions.”

In selected schools, only maths and science will be taught in English from Classes VI to IX. Students will have the option to decide the medium. As the kids have studied in Punjabi medium till Class V, the benefits of this initiative are a long way home.