Government opens English medium schools

A class ceiling is broken, as English becomes first language and medium of teaching

Quietly, but steadily, the BJP government has opened 74 English Medium schools, from 6th to 10 Standard across the State, chiefly in the educationally backward taluks.

Providing the springboard for the state to jump into English medium schools is the centrally-sponsored Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikshan Andolan (RMSA) scheme under which 74 Model Schools have been opened in the State, including 29 in Gulbarga Division which is considered the most backward region.

English medium schools have been opened in 29 of the 33 Educational Blocks in Gulbarga division comprising six districts, most of them in taluk centres.

Besides, breaking the shackles of Kannada medium, the Model Schools have also drastically changed the status of Kannada language in school teaching. Hitherto, Kannada enjoyed the first language status in Government high schools and now it has been relegated to second language status. The new schools will have English as the first language, followed by Kannada second language, and Hindi the third language.

“After lengthy deliberations at all levels, the government has taken a calculated decision to go for English medium of instruction. It is perhaps due to the necessity, demand and inevitability of English language in education in the liberalised era,” remarked Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction Syed Abdul Rub of Gulbarga Education
Commissionerate.

According primacy to English in educational instruction has been in the air for quite a long time, but no government had taken the risk of annoying the Kannada protagonists’
lobby.

Entrance test for Std V

The Yeddyurappa government, however, has chosen to take the calculated risk, starting with teaching English informally from the first standard in government schools, a few years ago.

The Model Schools which offer education from Standards 6 to 10 have already been started from July 15 after conducting entrance test for the 5 standard passed students.

“There was very good response for the entrance test in rural areas. The test was conducted both in Kannada and English,’’ Rub said. As many as 2513 students appeared for the entrance test in the seven educational blocks of Gulbarga district. Each school has an intake of 80 students. For 560 seats there were 2513 students which works out to about 4.5 students per seat.

This is in the maiden year of introduction with not much of publicity down the line. Rub hoped to open Model Schools in the four remaining blocks from the next year.

Right now, the schools have been started in government buildings and they will, in course of time have their own permanent building. Each Model School will be constructed in an area of five acres. In Chincholi taluk, land has already been earmarked for the purpose and in other places the search for land is on.

Teachers have been drawn for the new schools from among those serving in high schools, after conducting written and oral examinations for them to judge their aptitude for English medium teaching.

Rub said that recruitment of teachers exclusively for Model Schools will be conducted in due course.