‘Spoken English’ to be taught in Govt Model Schools soon, says Minister Nagesh

Shyam Sundar Vattam| NT

The Education department is planning to introduce ‘Spoken English’ classes at primary level in the proposed Government Model Schools which are aimed at promoting Kannada Medium schools across the State, informed Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C.Nagesh.

Participating in a roundtable conference on ‘Save Kannada schools: Promote Kannada’, he said plans are afoot to start one model school in each hobli and this has been announced in the Budget for 2022-23. Arrangements such as additional classrooms and two teachers for each language and each subject are being made. Along with teaching Kannada, teachers will teach ‘Spoken English’ to introduce students to English at an early level. This suggestion was given by noted Kannada litterateur, Dr.S.L.Byrappa.

Nagesh said people were influenced by private schools and Englishmedium education. It was the wish of parents to teach their wards English no matter what their economic status may be. For this reason, parents are showing interest to enroll their children in English Medium in Karnataka Public Schools.

A proposal is in the pipeline to teach English as a ‘spoken language in Kannada Model Schools. Starting from the primary level, both Mathematics and Environment studies books were being published in two languages, Kannada and English. While one side of the page would be in Kannada, the other page would be in English. These two subjects are provided to 1st to 4th standard students in two languages. In the academic years 2019-22, the textbooks were printed in two languages from first to third standards, and from this year, it would be extended to the fourth standard.

The Minister said there was a feeling that students who study in Kannada medium cannot compete in the current for which they must study in English medium.