The BJP-IPFT government of Tripura is rapidly converting the Bengali medium schools to English medium to enhance the competency of the students at the national level, said a senior official.
Inaugurating a virtual orientation programme for teachers, Education Minister Ratanlal Nath said that there were only 127 English medium schools in the state till 2018.
"In the past three years, the number of English medium schools increased to 257. Total 130 Bengali medium schools were converted into English medium in only three years, after the BJP government came to power," he said.
“The Directorate of Elementary Education under the Education department is organizing three days orientation program for improving the efficiency of the teachers who henceforth shall be teaching in English medium government schools which after the recent conversion of some 59 schools this year all total stands to 257 schools across Tripura,” said Chandni Chandran, director of Secondary Education and SCERT.
She added, “Based on demands we are converting the schools to English medium. We have adopted NCERT textbooks, CBSE curriculum and regularly conduct training for improving teacher’s aptitude and teaching skills for improving the quality of education which is the most priority sector for the government.
The training aims at equipping the teachers with the newer trends in English language teaching and to develop a perspective on the changes in language pedagogy and the strategies to realize them in the classroom.
Probably for the first time, resource persons and faculties from various top private schools were engaged in the orientation program that adopted strategies and methods that were participatory, discussion and activity-based to enable the teachers to think, reflect and critically analyze the ideas, aspect and the method followed.
To develop an understanding among the teachers on the emerging trends in teaching-learning of language there were discussions on various topics including listening and speaking, reading, writing, pedagogical grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, multilingualism as a strategy for language and content learning, storytelling, and other pedagogical aspects.
The Tripura government in its drive towards improving the education quality and ability of student’s competency at the national level examination has taken various initiatives including adopting NCERT textbooks, CBSE curriculum, and affiliation besides gradually converting Bengali medium schools to English medium on demand.
