Government schools to have English-medium classes

With the objective of making Kannada-medium government school students ready to compete with those from private English-medium schools, the Education Department here has taken a significant decision to start English-medium classes in government schools on pilot basis in the district.

The classes would be introduced from the current academic year in select 50 to 60 government schools for classes 6 to 8 of the district.

“We took this decision to bring a change in the education system here in order to make the students of government school compete with private English medium schools,” said zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer M. Sundresh Babu.

Speaking to The Hindu, he said he had asked the Block Education Officers (BEO) to identify schools where English-medium classes could be started by considering the required infrastructure and teachers who are good in the language.

He said that with the BEO identifying the schools, the classes would be commenced from this year itself. Based on the need, some of the teachers would also be deputed from other schools. If required, private teachers could also be appointed as guest teachers as there is provision for it in the department, he said. “One of the main reason for starting English-medium classes is that parents in even rural areas want their to children to study in English-medium schools as English has largely become inevitable for better career prospects at the global level compared to regional language. I have seen, despite having government school in their locality, parents send their children to far off places to English schools. Starting English classes would not only help in retaining students in government schools, but would also encourage the parents to send their children to such schools,” he said.

He said that decision has been taken to start English classes from class 6 because it would be easy for the students to learn English at this age. Besides this, since they have already learnt Kannada from class 1, it would not be a compromise on the State language also.

With regard to syllabus and conducting exam, Mr. Babu said that with the help of the Ministry concerned syllabus in English would be finalised. “About writing exam, we will prepare our students in a manner that they can write the exam in Kannada and English also based on order of the government,” he said.

He added that a provision has already been made by the Education Department to start English classes, which has been implemented now.