Years have passed. However, benefits are still enjoyed by those who know the ‘elite’ language, be it Sanskirt in the past or English in the present.
Realising the importance of English education, Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM) has come up with a plan to set up a parallel school to impart English education for dalit students. DHRM’s parallel education centre is expected to come up in Pathanamtitta in three years.
Dalit students will be given ‘gurukulam’ style parallel education in this school that will come up on 20 cents of land at Kumbukal in Pathanamtitta. As a preliminary step, DHRM has set up the ‘Home School’ project where volunteers of this pro-dalit group will visit homes of dailt students and impart training in English. Books were already distributed to as many as 42 pre-KG students at the inaugural function held recently in Thiruvananthapuram. Government Chief Whip P C George distributed the books at the function.
“Our aim is to impart English lessons to around 5,000 dalit families in the state by the end of this year. We have set up a team of volunteers capable of giving training to kids as well as their parents. DHRM volunteers will visit homes to give training to students,” said Vinod, a DHRM activist. “Most of the students get confused to express themselves after studying in Malayalam medium till Class X and switch over to English medium for higher education,” Vinod said.
The syllabus designed by DHRM is to familiarise students with common objects. “For example, second edition of the book will have English names of common kitchen utensils,” he said.
DHRM activists said that several volunteers, including those who have BEd and MPhil degrees, have joined the ‘Home School’ project. DHRM believes that they could groom a qualified, well-informed generation through the project.