Helping students become adepts in Spoken English

From August 1, students of Classes 1 to 7 in 31 government schools in Karkala taluk of Udupi will attend English-speaking classes by their 32 teachers using Google Meet. Teachers will make available videos of teaching sessions on YouTube. In addition, teachers will meet their students at designated places near the latter’s residences twice every week.

These are the ways and means in which the 32 teachers will resume teaching Spoken English in the second year of Gubbachhi Spoken English Programme.

This programme of the Education Department is among those being taken up since last year as part of the “Swarna Karkala Swachcha Karkala” initiative by Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar to mark the centenary year of the formation of Karkala taluk.

Karkala Block Education Officer G.S. Shashidhar, who conducted a similar Spoken English programme during his stint earlier in Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, designed the programme for Karkala students in consultation with English teachers and linguistic experts. “It was designed to blend local dialect with English and make students confident in speaking English,” Mr. Shashidhar said.

As many as 32 graduates were trained in May and their classes started in 31 schools of the taluk from June last year. Each class had one Spoken English session of 40 minutes every day. Donors came forward to provide training material and salary for the 32 teachers.

Mr. Sunil Kumar inaugurated the programme at the Government School in Hosmar village recently.

On July 27, Mr. Sunil Kumar participated in a function to honour the 32 teachers of the Gubbachhi programme at the auditorium of Bhuvanendra Secondary School in Karkala.