Moving a step closer to English medium education for students of government schools in the state, a training programme for teachers commenced at the Directorate of School Education here on Monday. Education Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy inaugurated the programme.
The Minister later interacted with Collectors and Education Officers of some districts over video conference and directed them to complete ‘Mana Ooru-Mana Badi’ programme as per schedule and get them ready for the coming academic year.
English medium will be introduced in 26,000-plus government schools from the coming academic year up to class 8. In the 2023-24 academic year, it will be introduced for class 9 students and for class 10 students in 2024-25.
Expert trainers
All subject teachers will be trained for nine weeks. Training would be imparted by experts from State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) and Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, in two phases. In the first phase, four week training will be given to 363 State-level key resource persons and 2,683 district mentors.
A total of 81,590 teachers will be imparted training, covering 16,500 teachers in each batch. The total number includes 52,924 primary school teachers and 28,666 higher school teachers.
The four-week programme, from March 14 to May 7, will comprise face-to-face training in the first week and then shift to the online mode for the remaining three weeks. The second phase of five-week training will be held in the next academic year 2022-23.
Uniform change
Answering some questions from participants, the Minister informed that the uniform of school students will be changed, while digital classes and libraries will be established in every school.
Ms Sabitha appreciated Siddipet Collector M. Hanaumantha and his team for mentioning about Indira Nagar Government High School where teachers were forced to put up a ‘seats full’ board and said that all government schools should come to that level of admissions.
Later, interacting with media, she said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wanted to bring about a complete change in government schools and as part of that, ‘Mana Ooru-Mana Badi’ and English medium of instruction in schools are being taken up. Informing that about 3 lakh students from private schools had joined government schools following the COVID-19 outbreak, she said efforts by the government would equip the students to compete with their corporate school counterparts.
Asked about the mode of recruitment of teachers, Ms. Sabitha said there will be clarity in a day or two. She also indicated that there is a clash of dates in some examinations and a decision in this regard will be taken by Tuesday.
Director of School Education A. Devasena, Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania, and Azim Premji University professors Arun Naik and Nisha Butoliya were present.
