Ambitious English training programme fails to benefit students

BENGALURU: An endeavour to hone the skills of government school English teachers in writing, reading and communication through the British Council (BC) has all but fallen flat. The state government had spent more than Rs 1 crore for the training programme to improve the quality of English teaching in its schools. A study conducted by the Regional Institute of English (RIE) has revealed that students' performance in the subject, including writing skills, continued to be low despite their teachers having undergone training. Of the 3,142 students surveyed, 14.26% were found to be very poor, 27.02% poor, 31.22% average, 23.49% good and 4.01% very good. During interactions, the teachers admitted that the various categories of students were there even earlier, implying that the training as such didn't have the desired effect in classrooms. The need to ensure quality English teaching was realized after the state introduced it as a language from class I in its schools, which had mother tongue as the medium of instruction a few years ago. The introduction of the language itself was part of the state's medium-of-instruction policy under which English-medium schools weren't being allowed to open. The training programme commenced in 2010-11. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) entrusted the task of studying the impact of the training to RIE. The study was conducted between December 2013 and February 2014 in eight districts on 354 teachers, who attended BC's training and 3,142 students. According to the findings, a number of activities provided in the training module, particularly the teacher workbook, were found to be very effective. But only a few of them seemed to be related to that prescribed in primary level textbooks. Teachers were found to have benefited from the training but there seemed to be no impact in their classroom interactions and students' performance. Admitting the main limitation was that it was conducted almost immediately after the training, the study concluded with the hope that "there will be a lot of change in the next academic year". A British Council spokesperson said they haven't received the study report and can respond only after seeing it. -TOI