The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Spoken English classes in Corporation schools

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 11, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Spoken English classes in Corporation schools

Staff Reporter

Primarily aimed at students of classes XI and XII: official

ACTIVE LEARNING: A student explains a remote sensing model at the science exhibition held at Corporation Boys Higher Secondary School, Nungambakkam, on Friday. — Photo: S. S. Kumar.

Chennai : The Chennai Corporation plans to introduce a spoken English programme in its schools to help students gain better job skills.

The Corporation's education department is looking at various language-training options for its teachers, including networking with non-governmental organisations and sending teachers for short courses at the Regional Institute of Education in Mysore. The idea is to help teachers train students to speak fluent English.

"The programme is primarily aimed at students of classes 11 and 12, who may be taking up jobs once they complete schooling," said Sandhya Venugopal Sharma, Corporation Joint Commissioner (Education).

Extra attention

Schools in zones 1, 2 and 3 (Tondiarpet, Basin Bridge and Pulianthope) would be given extra attention as students here face more difficulty with English. Ms. Sharma said teachers would be trained during the summer vacation so that classes were not affected. Until now, there have only been short-term projects taken up by NGOs in selected Corporation schools. The Corporation will also organise inter-school science exhibitions to enable students to display projects outside their own classrooms. Intra-school exhibitions have already commenced, and on Friday, a science and technology project display was held at the Nungambakkam Boys Higher Secondary School.

Mayor M. Subramanian, who inaugurated the event, said that a science laboratory would be built for the school soon. Students displayed projects related to environment conservation, principles of light and sound and space technology. The exhibition concludes on Saturday.

Mega health camp

The Mayor told reporters that a mega health camp would be organised in the city on November 12. Camps would be held in all 155 divisions to screen people for fevers, chills and diarrhoeal diseases. Each of the ten zones would also have a special eye camp. Selected camps would offer blood sugar tests.

Local Administration Minister M. K. Stalin will inaugurate the camp at Corporation School, Giriappa Road, in the Thousand Lights constituency.

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