Mangaluru: Despite students of government schools performing as good as students of English medium and convent schools in the examinations, their only drawback is the reluctance to speak in English.
Most of the students of government schools hesitate to speak in English as the language is restricted to examinations and there is hardly any conversation in English. To overcome this hesitation, education department officials along with School Development Management Committees (SDMCs) in Puttur Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district have decided to start spoken English classes in 50 schools from July.
Puttur taluk has 184 government schools and the education department plans to provide spoken English classes in 50 schools initially. “Parents and guardians feel English is the need of the hour and they prefer sending their students to private schools. In 40 schools we have initiated various programmes under under ‘Vision Puttur,’ project to attract students to government schools. Spoken English classes are part of this programme from this year,” Puttur BEO G.S. Shashidar told Deccan Chronicle, adding no government fund is utilized for this program.
“Students would be taught poems and songs and also how to converse in English. Songs and poems are downloaded from YouTube and Internet sites. We are preparing good study material to ensure that the students get maximum benefit out of this project. We want Kannada medium students to be fluent in English,” he added.
