To improve the language skills of government school teachers, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has decided to start four language laboratories across the State. The Basha Abhiyan Kendras, or languages learning centres, will be named after writer and historian Alur Venkata Rao.
The four centres will be opened in Belagavi, Shivamogga, Chitradurga and Kalaburagi, at an investment of ₹50 lakh each, in two months. They will be established at one Government College of Teacher Education in each of the four divisions in Karnataka.
In addition to giving emphasis to Kannada and English, the centres will also have programmes on the dominant languages of that region. For instance, language experts running one of the centres will do research on Dharwad Kannada. At another centre, they will explore how effectively Urdu can be taught to teachers and those aspiring to enter the profession.
H.N. Gopalkrishna, Director of the Department of School Educational Research and Training, which will run the initiative, said apart from trained language experts, the labs will have computers and software to train teachers and correct their pronunciation. Language experts will be roped in to develop a workbook.
At present, such language labs are only there in private schools, where students, too, have access to audio or audio-visual content. A government official said once teachers learn at the language labs, they can try and emulate some of the practices in their classrooms and also develop low-cost language labs with the help of the local school development monitoring committees. Government school teachers have welcomed to move. A teacher deputed in Dharwad said, “I completed my schooling and college in Mysuru but am posted in Dharwad. Many words are different [here] and I am grappling with pronunciation as well. Opening such a centre will help teachers like me to communicate more effectively with my students.”