Haryana sends teachers to school, to learn A,B,C

In the rest, the Haryana Pradesh Prathmik Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad, which is running the World Bank-funded District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), will train primary teachers in teaching of English in consultation with DIETs and SCERT.

The training programme in these DPEP districts — Kaithal, Sirsa, Jind, Hisar, Gurgaon, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh — will commence on June 2.

The parishad will conduct the month-long training programme in two-day batches with the help of 500 master trainers. The training schedule for the other 12 districts is expected to be finalised soon by the Directorate of Primary Education.

“The introduction of English is aimed at removing disparities between rural and urban students,” said Education Secretary Prem Prashant, adding that the idea was to provide a level-playing field to everyone.

While state Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has already made public his intention to introduce teaching of English from the next academic session, the formal announcement will come only in the new education policy, being formulated by a high-level panel set up by the state government under Education Minister Bahadur Singh. It is expected to be announced over the next two weeks.

Doubts are already being raised, however, over the government’s ability to successfully introduce English at the primary level. It is currently being taught as a subject from Class VI onwards. While Education Department officials are confident of their ability to commence teaching of English from the forthcoming session, experts in SCERT and DIETs have different views.

“It is not as simple as it appears. Not only do we need to train primary teachers properly because many of them do not even know the basics of English language, the formulation of content of text books and training modules is equally important”, they said. The government is yet to finalise any decision on content.