Bengaluru: Government identifying schools for English medium next year

Bengaluru: In a welcome move, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has started identifying government schools to introduce English medium from the next academic year. The stakeholders had slammed the government for not mentioning this crucial issue in the state budget (HDK’s budget fails government schools, Feb. 13) and had stressed how introducing English medium classes was essential to bring government schools on par with their private counterparts.

The process to identify four schools per Assembly constituency began recently, DPI officials told Deccan Chronicle. “The schools will be picked across all the 224 Assembly constituencies in the state. Karnataka Public Schools (which offers education from pre-primary to higher secondary level) will also be included in the scheme. Parents will soon have the choice of choosing the medium instruction for their wards,” a Block Education Officer (BEO) said.

Once the list is ready, the department will cherry pick further based on student strength and infrastructure in these schools.

English-medium curriculum developed by RIE

The Regional Institute of English (RIE), South India has developed the curriculum and study modules for Grade 1 students. Officials said that a follow-up round of workshops, special training sessions and comprehensive preparation of the lesson plans took place in the city in the third week of February.