BENGALURU: The recent budget announcement to have English as medium of instruction in 1,000 government schools in the state has been widely welcomed, but educationists are concerned whether these schools are equipped enough to implement it. They wonder how ready the government is in carrying out this transition, as Kannada has been the medium of instruction in government schools since 1994.
Education expert Niranjanaradhya V.P. felt finding sufficient number of teachers to implement the move in government schools would be a challenging task. “The government is trying to mislead the public, while in real terms the move is unscientific. Our teachers are not qualified to do so, at the first instance, and the government had to prepare itself first to take up the task before an official announcement of the same,” he said.
However, he welcomed the decision to teach children in English medium at government schools – something seen as a major policy shift from that of the previous state governments. Child rights activist and director of Child Rights Trust Nagasimha G. Rao said the existing government school teachers should undergo comprehensive training before such a task is handed over to them.
“Primarily, we lack numbers in terms of English government school teachers in the state. Special budgetary provision should have been allocated to this first and only then the decision would have felt legitimate and feasible,” he said. He also added that English-teaching should include a complete curriculum and not something for namesake to fool the public.
