To strengthen English communication abilities among students, the school education department plans to implement a foundational language skills program starting next academic year.
This will be implemented for students in Classes VI to VIII in government schools, and top officers of the school education department recently discussed about how to implement this effectively in schools.
Ahead of this, the school education department has started to collect details of the English subject teachers who have been remarkably successful in developing foundational language skills through their creative and innovative teaching strategies, district wise.
According to the sources in the School Education Department, even though government school students pass their English examinations, they still struggle with foundational English skills, such as basic listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Deficiencies in psycho-linguistic factors negatively impact students' personal English language development. Furthermore, an inferiority complex causes them to hesitate to speak English.
The problem lies not with the students, but with the classroom environment. Beyond the syllabus and lessons, most teachers do not make sufficient efforts to improve students' English language skills.
This is a serious issue. At the same time, some teachers are using effective approaches, methods, and techniques in the classroom to develop students' English skills, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
In order to address this issue, officers of the school education department have initiated efforts to discover and implement best practices for enhancing students' language skills, working alongside teachers. To facilitate this, a collaborative and informal knowledge-sharing platform is being envisioned, where such effective teaching methodologies can be exchanged and adapted in similar learning contexts," sources added.
A top educational officer in the school education department told The New Indian Express, "As a first step, Chief Educational Officers (CEOs) have been instructed to recommend the names of dedicated and passionate English teachers who have demonstrated excellence in language instruction. These teachers will be invited to participate in a brainstorming session soon."
"Based on teachers' best practice method and students' performance in English, we would implement a foundational language skills program in schools in the next academic year. The work is underway," he said.
