Susheela S. (name changed), who teaches social science in the English-medium section of a government high school in the city, sometimes breaks into Kannada midway through her class.
“Some of the words are difficult to pronounce. Besides, there are words whose meanings I am unable to recollect quickly,” she says. Ms. Susheela is not one to enter a class without preparation, but having studied and taught in Kannada all her life, she often finds herself “incompetent” to teach in English.
It’s a similar situation in several other government schools, where teachers are often mentally stressed when asked to handle the English-medium section — a task they are not adequately trained for.
The government has been increasingly sanctioning English-medium sections for higher primary schools and high schools upon receiving requests from the School Development Monitoring Committee. However, teachers and experts say issuing permission for English-medium classes would not serve any purpose without providing training to the teachers or recruiting teachers who have studied in English medium.
So stressed are the teachers over this that in a school in north Bengaluru, they pick lots to decide who has to teach the English-medium sections. “We are all reluctant to teach in English. But as soon as we started English-medium sections about two years ago, we started seeing more demand for seats,” said the headmaster of a government high school.
Permission accorded
In its response to a query by Arun Shahapur, Bharatiya Janata Party MLC, the State government had said permission was granted to 47 Kannada-, Urdu-, Tamil-medium higher primary schools to start English-medium sections for 2017-2018.
According to Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait, 42 government high schools in Bengaluru division were given permission to start English-medium sections. Mr Sait had said that two teachers from such schools would be sent for an “English language empowerment programme for primary school teachers”, conducted by the Regional Institute of Education. According to officials in the Eduction Department, around 10,000 teachers have been given this training so far.
V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, a fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, said the government was committing a “blunder” by generously according permission to start English-medium sections. “Many of the government school teachers are not even able to teach English as a subject for class 1. How will they teach in English for upper primary or high school classes?” he asked.
Tough stand on lower primary schools
While thousands of private schools have received permission to offer education in English medium from class 1 to 5, the State government has categorically said it will not accord this permission to government lower primary schools.
Some members of the School Development and Monitoring Committee had written to the Department of Public Instruction and even submitted proposals to start such English-medium classes. These, however, were rejected by the department.
In fact, the State government has even passed an amendment in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, making teaching in mother tongue mandatory in elementary classes. “Even those from extremely poor families want to shell out money and study in English medium by paying hefty fees. If the department sanctions permission for English-medium section in lower primary schools, the student strength will automatically increase,” said the headmaster of a government primary school.
