Teachers to become ambassadors to promote English

Teachers serving in government schools will now don the role of ambassadors to promote admissions into English medium government schools.

At the beginning of the academic year, the teachers are supposed to visit houses around their school and conduct a survey of children who can possibly be admitted to their school.

This year, teachers and headmasters in government schools offering English as the medium of instruction will have to take up an additional task. They should counsel parents to send their children to school. Teachers have been told to educate parents about the introduction of English as the medium of instruction in their schools and the advantages their child would enjoy.

Radha, a primary school teacher working in Bengaluru Rural, told DH, “We have been asked to visit every household. With government schools introducing English as the medium of instruction, officials believe that by undertaking these exercises, admissions to these schools will go up.”

Another teacher from a government school that is set to offer English medium from this academic year said that officials had instructed the teachers to undertake the task since it would be effective in increasing the student intake in government schools, thereby reducing the number of children seeking admissions to private schools.

“The issue is not about bigger establishments. We are only hoping that the number of children seeking admissions in smaller private schools in nearby localities will go down. All these days, even those who were finding it hard to make their ends meet were sending their wards to private schools. But we now want to draw
such children towards us,” she added.

Teachers have also been instructed to put up posters in front of the schools indicating that the medium of instruction will henceforth be in English.

The government has proposed to introduce English as the medium of instruction in at least 1,000 schools from this academic year. “Teachers have been asked to convince parents that English will be taught effectively and that all infrastructure was in place. A team of teachers will visit each area and distribute pamphlets among the residents,” said Chandru Nugli, state general secretary, Primary School Teachers’ Association.

“Presently, due to examinations and elections, teachers are a bit busy. They will start this task on a war-footing basis soon, once they are through with the examination and election duties. These measures are essential to ensure that the government schools thrive.”