CHENNAI: Soon, fluency in English will not be a skill restricted to children going to private schools. The government is all set to roll out a ‘spoken English’ module as part of the curriculum in government schools.
School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan will release the guidelines for the programme, on Wednesday.
“We keep hearing complaints that government school students miss out on several opportunities as their communication skills are not on par with children who go to private schools,” said a senior official.
Despite having the competent subject knowledge, students often lag behind even in college as they struggle to communicate well in English.
“This initiative will break the stereotype that government school students cannot converse well in English,” said the official. The initiative has been welcomed by parents and students alike.
“It will be extremely useful for students. However, the training should be conducted by specialised instructors, and not the existing teachers,” says S Arumainathan of TN Students-Parents Welfare Association.
According to an order issued by the department on Tuesday, students will get weekly training on soft skills including communication from their respective English teachers.
“In the first week of December, three teachers from each district, who are Key Resource Persons, will receive a spoken English training. Following this, they will train all English teachers in turn,” said an official from the SCERT.
The government order has directed schools to formulate a new time-table integrating this module for all students from class 1-9.
Students from class 1-5 will receive a weekly training of 90 minutes, which will include, 40 minutes of activity-based training on spoken English, 40 minutes to watch Kalvi TV and 10 minutes to do activities based on content watched on the TV channel.
Students from classes 6-9 will receive spoken English training for 45 minutes a week, the order said.
Finnish org training for govt school teachers
Chennai: Tamil Nadu State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in collaboration with educationalists in Finland on Tuesday held a one-day training programme on student-based teaching and learning for government school teachers.
“We wanted to expose our teachers to Finnish pedagogy. Their approach to education is very flexible and driven by the growth and interests of students,” M Palanisamy, Director of SCERT, told Express.