Click to play videoBangalore: Seema might be too young to know the benefits of learning English, but her parents always longed for English education for their kid.
"I am a student of class one and I like to study English," says Seema.
Seema’s wish and also that of her parents has just been fulfilled. Starting this year, all state-run schools in Karnataka will introduce English as a subject right from Class 1. The decision will benefit 42 lakh students.
"Introducing English in class I will be advantageous to children in Karnataka mainly those children to talk of schools, most of the children in government school are from disadvantageous section of the society, they need to have an expose to two language," says Commissioner of Public Instruction, Karnataka, M Madangopal.
The move has triggered a massive demand for teachers who know the language. The state education department has now designed a book to make teachers comfortable with the language.
The handbook includes pictorial stories, rhymes, and small and simple sentences. As many as 60,000 teachers have already been trained to teach English in Kannada-medium state-run schools.
"I have been taught how to use rhymes, explain stories. So I feel very happy. I also read all the books and I feel very happy," says a teacher, Rekha Kumari.
The Karnataka government had banned English up to Class 5 in the 1980s, bowing to pressure from pro-Kannada activists. But the subsequent emergence of Bangalore as an IT city made a change in the decision inevitable.
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