Star teacher behind EG students’ successful interaction with YSR

VIJAYAWADA: After five students impressed Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, last week, with their accented English, the spotlight is now on Ganta Veera Prasad - the English teacher at Bendapudi Zilla Parishad High School in East Godavari district.

Passion for teaching helped Prasad, a native of Pithapuram, top the District Selection Committee (DSC) exam in 2008. He was first posted in Ravikampadu ZP High School where he began teaching in his own style at the Telugu medium school. 

Prasad learnt speaking American English when he was still studying. He then started teaching students by making them pronounce each word they spoke in English, with an accent. In 2017, the star teacher shifted to the Bendapudi ZP School, where students were taught in both English and Telugu medium.  

He would choose five students each from 11 sections and then teach them academics. Sacrificing his own personal time, he would conduct online classes as well. Speaking to TNIE, Prasad expressed his joy after five of his students - T Meghana, K Rishma, T Anudeep, R Tejaswini and K Venkanna Babu - became the talk of the town as they spoke in fluent, accented English with the CM.

Thanking the CM and the officials who noticed his efforts, he said the interaction has now put more responsibility on him to help the students further in speaking English professionally. He pointed out that any student can learn anything if the teacher identifies his/her interests closely.

The students are taught without using any software. For practice purpose, they directly hold discussions with the high school students of in the USA. Prasad took help from his friend, Penugonda Lovaraju from Gollaprolu mandal who currently lives in the USA, to organise debate sessions with the students with high school students from America. The method proved to be a success.

T Meghana, one of the students who interacted with the CM, told TNIE that they would attend two-hour long classes. “As a part of Spoken English, we listen to the words and sentences carefully. Our English teacher teaches us pronunciation, accent and he corrects mistakes while speaking,” she added. 
The Class X student said she wanted to become a doctor and added that her interest to learn English gave her the opportunity to interact with Chief Minister Jagan.

Another student, K Rishma said learning to speak English in an international accent would help her become an air hostess. Prasad expressed gratitude to the headmaster and teachers of the Bendapudi school who supported him and his teaching methods. He further said all the teachers also now try to talk in American English.