English at primary school level is Greek to students

LUDHIANA, Feb 16: A blank look is what Inderjit Singh, a class-I student at the Jhandi village primary school comes up with when asked to...

LUDHIANA, Feb 16: A blank look is what Inderjit Singh, a class-I student at the Jhandi village primary school comes up with when asked to recite the English alphabet. Perhaps, a spell of nervousness, nothing unusual for a six-year old, but the same story is repeated with students at many other primary schools in the city and nearby villages. A few who do start off can8217;t go beyond C. The truth is that the Queen8217;s English is still Greek to students, even though the language was introduced in the primary schools in August.

While teachers are willing to blame it on reasons ranging from the background of students to illiterate parents and the lack of proper diet, others blame the Administration. The fact remains that the teaching of English has been implemented in a hurry and the overburdened teachers have been made to teach a subject with which they are not familiar. Teachers who have been teaching in Punjabi medium schools all their life are now finding the new subject difficult to tackle.

This combination has rather incongruous effects. Baby, a class I students at Mehrwan village reading through her Primer, still recites A for Seb apple. Those teachers who can get past their own lack of knowledge are running into other problems. Kuldeep Kaur, a teacher at the government primary school Jodhewal, asserts, 8220;Most of our students come from the poorer strata. More of often than not, their parents are illiterate. So it is difficult for them to retain what we teach as there is no one to help them at home8221;.

Being poor, she claims, they are also underfed, this, she adds, inhibits their mental growth and they find it difficult to learn three languages at one go. Whatever the truth of that assertion, students in many of the villages, who certainly are not underfed, face the same problems.

Harbans Kaur, a teacher at the Khawazke Primary School says her students cannot retain the lessons as their illiterate parents are unable to help them study at home. Surinder Kaur, a teacher at the Mehrban village Primary School adds that in a climate not conducive to studies, children do not even maintain their books. Some, she says, have even torn up the English primers. The district education office distributed 31,655 primers, 17,776 free primers to SC students and 13,879 primers at Rs. 4 each to other students, in 965 district primary schools.

Dr Sukhdev Singh, former Vice Chancellor of the PAU points out that students whose parents are illiterate are not in a position to revise their work at home. These students, he adds, won8217;t be able to perform well and this will tell on them. He warned that the present stress on English could increase the drop-out rate.

Staff shortage is cited as yet another reason. Over 350 posts of teachers lying vacant not only due to lack of teachers but also due to lack of planing. Sukhdev Singh, a panch of Daulatpur village said that their school is shut for nearly a week as the only teacher is on medical leave. At Bullowal village though there are two teachers, hardly any student attends classes. Surjeet Kaur Sandhu, Education Secretary, said that they were planning to solve the problems as soon as possible. She said that it was mainly the Macchiwara area in the district which faced this problem so the administration planned to give the panchayats powers to appoint the educated unemployed locally as teachers.

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These plans, often announced as solutions have often failed to deliver in the past. An employee in the Education Department said on the condition of anonymity that it is widespread indiscipline that is responsible for the poor state of affairs.

District Education Officer Gian Kaur, when contacted, said that she had recently some schools in the area to see how the scheme was faring.