BHUBANESWAR: Students of Government schools will be introduced to ‘Spoken English’ from Class 1.
Informing the new initiative, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Tuesday said initially English education will be taken up on a priority basis in 100 schools. At present, children study English as a subject from Class III after it was introduced in the curriculum of Government schools.
The fresh decision was taken in view of the interest of the parents and guardians in English education. Dash claimed that the parents and guardians are keen on teaching English to their wards from elementary level. The Government’s Spoken English module well help children learn it better, he said.
Officials said the new initiative is aimed at breaking the stereotype that government school students cannot converse well in English.
Around 72 per cent students who had failed in the HSC examinations in 2019 had not cleared English paper. Keeping this in view, the Government had last year stressed on the need to improve standard of English in Odia medium schools and decided to increase the duration of English class to 90 minutes from the existing 45 minutes.
Spoken English from Class I
In another decision, the Government plans to introduce online attendance system in government schools. A plan in this regard will be worked out soon to prevent unauthorised absence of students as well as teachers.