95,000 teachers in Andhra Pradesh to get English training from December

According to sources, the training programme, which will begin from the second week of December, will be limited to primary and upper primary teachers in the first phase.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

VIJAYAWADA:   As many as 94,889 teachers of Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad primary schools, who studied degree in Telugu or other medium, have been identified for the State government’s teacher training programme. The training programme is part of the decision to change medium of instruction to English from class 1 to 6 in all government schools from next academic year. 

At present, there are 1.81 lakh of teachers in government schools across the State. In government primary schools, there are 71,634 teachers. As many as 25,574 teachers are working in upper primary and 84,146 are in high schools. 

As on date, there is no special recruitment for English teachers and its is being taught by other teachers. Only for Telugu and Hindi, language teachers have been recruited. As many as 20,000 teacher posts remain vacant in the government schools. 

According to sources, the training programme, which will

begin from the second week of December, will be limited to primary and upper primary teachers in the first phase. As part of the training, from each district 10 teachers will be identified and they will be trained by the expert teams from English Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Regional Institute of English- Bangalore and Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.

In this phase, 130 teachers will be trained and once their training is completed, they will be dived into groups of 3-4 teachers and they, in turn, will train the teachers in the mandal-level. After that, the training will be provided to the teachers from rural areas in a phased manner. 

Speaking to TNIE, SCERT director B Pratap Reddy said, “The teacher training will be started from next month and schedule is being prepared. So far, we have identified around 95,000 teachers for the programme. For single teacher schools, we have taken certain precautions so that their classes don’t get affected. The training schedule is being designed by considering the examination period of the ongoing academic year.”

Meanwhile, the teachers unions urged the government to conduct training programme for a longer period.  “We are not against introduction of English medium in government  schools. In fact, English medium is existing in government schools from 2008 itself, but only 50 per cent of the students are preferring it. At present, a large number of teachers who studied in Telugu medium are working in English medium. A majority of the teachers are capable of teaching in English. Still those in rural areas require good training. Training classes for 1-2 months may not yield good results. We request the government to provide training for at least a year, “ said P Babu Reddy, secretary of the United Teachers Federation.

B Sujatha Rani, English teacher at a government school in Vijayawada, said, “Teaching English and teaching in English medium is different. I did my education in Telugu medium. Though I can teach English, I feel a little hard to teach other subjects in English. I am looking forward for the training. Initially, it might be a little hard for both students and teachers.”

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