Hry govt schools moving towards English medium

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government has begun taking baby steps towards introducing English as medium of teaching from Class 1in the state-run schools.

While English as the medium of teaching is being introduced for the students of Class 1in 238 government schools from this academic session, science and mathematics is being introduced in English medium from Class 9 in 310 schools.

The objective behind teaching mathematics and science in English medium is to prepare the students for competitive examinations.

Unveiling a slew of steps being taken, Haryana’s additional chief secretary (Acs-school education) Dheera Khandelwal on Thursday said the focus is on improving the command of the students over Hindi as well as English.

She said 32 residential schools of girls will be upgraded from the existing middle standard to plus two level.

“We want government schools to be better than private schools, and gradually we are going to switch over to the English medium. Our stress is on improving learning, listening and speaking abilities of students,” Khandelwal said.

Last year, the education department had introduced the English as medium of teaching in first standard along with bag free learning system in 180 schools.

The ACS said six districts namely Faridabad, Panchkula, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal and Rohtak will have English language labs and that equal emphasis is being laid on training of the teachers. She said more

› We want government schools to be better than private schools, and gradually we are going to switch over to the English medium.

DHEERA KHANDELWAL, addl chief secy, school education

language labs will be set up in other schools of the state.

A booklet containing 1,000 sentences or phrases has been prepared which contains 200 sentences for each class up to class V.

This will help the students learn about 1,000 words till class V at primary level of schooling.

A reputed private institute has been roped in as a voluntary partner to execute the new initiative of teaching math and science in English by providing orientation to the teachers.

She said mathematics corners or labs and Ganit Gyan Clubs are being developed in schools to promote mathematics.

Khandelwal said this year Career Counseling and Conflict Management Cells will be set up in the districts and that all the cells will have trained counselors to help students, teachers and parents who could visit the cell any time and discuss any topic.