The students of 750 Government schools of Uttarakhand would learn the intricacies of English language under a Central Government sponsored project titled ‘Unnati’. The three month long project would target the students of Class IX-Class XII of these selected schools.
A workshop was recently convened at the education directorate here to prepare a working plan for the project. In the workshop it was decided that a pre test of the students would be taken first so that their level of English knowledge and conversation is gauged. After this the course would impart the basic knowledge of English vocabulary, sentences of daily usage and conversation to the students. At the end of the course a post test of the students would also be taken which will assess the progress made by the student. The education department would take the services of experts from reputed private institutes in this project. This project would be implemented in fifty three schools of Dehradun district.
The Chief Education Officer (CEO) SP Khali told The Pioneer that the project is the brain child of State Director General of School education. He said the aim of the project is to remove the hesitation among the students of the Government schools. “It is normally seen that the Government school students develop an inferiority complex as they can not speak English, the project would try to remove this complex,” Khali said.
The educationists however are raising doubts over the project. US Bhandari a retired principal said that a time period of three months is very less; he said that the skills of English conversation develop from an atmosphere which is not there in the Government schools of the State. He was of the view that instead of wasting time and money on such projects the department should focus on providing infrastructure and teachers to these schools.