English-medium teaching returns

Updated on: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

English as the medium of teaching was back at select government schools on Monday, 26 years after the Left Front government banished it from state-run schools. It has now been reintroduced in the higher secondary section of 54 government and stateaffiliated schools.

Madhuparna Ghosh, a Class XI science student of Sakhawat Memorial School, had no difficulty following the lectures her teachers gave in English, except for biology. “I had some problems with some terms in biology as I switched from Bengali-medium in the HS. Our teacher explained those in Bengali. But that was all I needed. Otherwise, I had no problem in taking down notes. We didn’t have the chemistry class today. And the rest — English and mathematics — have not been a problem for me,” Ghosh said.

The result of the government’s move is apparent. Several students like Madhuparna have stayed back in the school that had suffered a migration to private English-medium schools in the past few years. “Some of our bright students have been leaving the school to study HS in schools like South Point. The first five went to such schools last year because they felt that teaching in English will help them crack the competitive exams,” said Kuheli Mukherjee, class teacher of the Class XI science section.

However, the school is yet to get trained teachers for the English-medium section as the government has promised. “We are continuing with the existing staff. They do not have difficulty in taking classes because our school has an Urdu section where teachers sometimes have to explain to students in English,” said Mukherjee.

Of the 30 students in the new section, 15 are from Sakhawat Memorial and the rest are from other schools. Permission for teaching in English has been given mostly for the science stream, and two commerce sections in government schools though humanities is still out of bounds.

Jodhpur Park Boys School, Bethune Collegiate School and New Alipore Multipurpose Girls School have also been selected for opening such sections. “There is a strong demand for studying HS in English-medium. Selected schools have the infrastructure and draw the bright students in the city,” said school education minister Partha De.

In fact, De is among the handful in the CPM who had shown dissent against the government’s decision to banish English and English-medium teaching from government-run schools way back in 1984. Teaching of English language was brought back to Class V in 1992, Class III in 1998 and finally, in Class I in 2003. This was not all. The government also brought a change in the teaching methodology — from grammar-based to vocabulary-based instruction. (TNN)

English-medium teaching returns

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