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English medium: Classes to be bilingual in govt schools

Last Updated 02 March 2019, 17:39 IST

Teachers in primary schools have to conduct bilingual sessions once the English medium in government schools is implemented.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy announced that English medium would be introduced in 1,000 government schools, to begin with.

Commissioner for Public Instruction, P C Jaffer said that English medium would be introduced for Class 1 students this academic year.

“The teaching will be in tune with the level of learning and grasp of children. Classes will be bilingual in the beginning and gradually shift to the medium of instruction,” he added.

The department, however, said that no bridge course would be conducted for students prior to the introduction of the new medium of instruction. This was among the primary recommendations that experts had given when the announcement for the start of the English medium in government schools was made.

Schools not identified

The department has announced in its academic schedule that the classes for the next academic year would commence by May-end.

However, the department has not prepared the list of schools, where these classes would commence even as just 90 days are left.

“We are only hopeful that we will be able to achieve it, this year. The necessary number of teachers have to be posted here and the list must be publicised to attract more admissions. There is a very short time left for all of this,” said an official from the department on condition of anonymity.

Niranjanaradhya V P, Fellow, Centre for Child and the Law said, “The question we are all asking is if it is bilingual- the medium of education should be in the mother tongue. It could create a lot of confusion among students.”

He questioned whether the state would introduce new textbooks to support the bilingual format of teaching that has concepts in both languages.

“Class one students study Environmental Science and mathematics besides languages. If children are taught concepts in the new language, they will only memorize it without gathering the concepts. If at all their English knowledge has to be improved, English must be introduced as a language with a higher level of competency,” he said.

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(Published 02 March 2019, 17:26 IST)

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