Bengaluru: The Karnataka school education department has begun teacher training process for bilingual classrooms, where both Kannada and English are used to impart education. More than 27,000 schools are set to get bilingual sections from the next academic year. Over 1 lakh teachers are to be trained for the process, including 45,000 teachers from the new 27,000 sections.
The education department is converting all govt schools in 15 districts – Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Hassan, Tumakuru, Dakshina Kannada, Kolar, Koppal, Dharwad, Vijayapura and Bagalkot – into monograde bilingual classrooms, replacing the earlier Nali-Kali system. This is in addition to all the Karnataka Public Schools and PM Shri schools, pre-primary schools and a few mining-affected taluks, that will also get bilingual classrooms.
There are 9,000 bilingual sections in the state till now. Bilingual sections were started by former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy in 2019-20. Since then, every year, a few hundred schools get bilingual sections, where classes are taught in both Kannada and English. After Class 5, students can choose between English and Kannada. The first batch of students will reach Class 8 next academic year.
However, this time, the number of schools that will be converted is vast, making the task humongous. “This training will be done at three levels – state, district and at taluk level. At the state level, a two-day orientation programme for nearly 400 state resource persons was provided. SRPs are training master resource persons – 15 from each taluk – through a five-day training programme at the district level. Soon after this, a massive teacher training will be conducted at the taluk level,” said an official.
The training would include five-day intense training with follow-ups during vacation. The training will include familiarising with the bilingual curriculum and textbooks, building their English language proficiency and enhancing their teaching/pedagogical skills among teachers.
“The teachers will be trained in how to deliver the lessons in both languages. Given that most of the teachers can read and write English, it will not be hard,” said Vikas Kishore Suralkar, commissioner, department of school education and literacy.
However, experts caution against challenges which come with these large initiatives. “Monitoring and quality assurance will be a task when such large-scale initiatives are implemented. Moreover, five days of training is too short to remove teachers’ fears and build confidence in using English. Regular follow-up sessions, teacher mentoring and more practice-oriented trainings are necessary,” said an academician, who did not want to be identified.
Translating training into classroom practice is a big challenge. Teachers may struggle to understand and apply concepts of bilingual approach and may resort to traditional methods of teaching. They may not internalise the philosophy, principles and practices of a bilingual means of education, he added.
“Many teachers in rural areas struggle to read and understand texts in English. A five-day training will be a good beginning, but it will hardly suffice. Teachers will at least go through the textbooks, start preparing their lessons and plan activities during free time. But more practice is needed to build their confidence,” said a govt schoolteacher.
“When bilingual classrooms were launched in 2019, teachers were put through a two-week training followed by several round-the-year training sessions. Before jumping into another massive exercise, it might help to review and reflect the impact of the previous training,” said another teacher.
BOX: Bilingual Classrooms
District – Total Schools – Total Teachers
Bagalkot – 1,977 – 3,564
Bengaluru Rural – 1,371 – 1,959
Bengaluru Urban North – 707 – 1,588
Bengaluru Urban South – 1,204 – 2,380
Dakshina Kannada – 1,282 – 1,541
Dharwad – 1,229 – 2,666
Hassan – 2,962 – 4,272
Haveri – 1,771 – 3,348
Kalaburagi – 2,300 – 3,798
Kolar – 2,226 – 3,476
Koppal – 1,223 – 2,207
Ramanagara – 1,328 – 1,778
Shivamogga – 2,542 – 3,905
Tumakuru – 2,591 – 3,955
Vijayapura – 2,709 – 5,437
Total – 27,422 – 45,874
