Steps To Be Taken To Improve English Language Teaching

SAS Nagar Mohali, 24 June, 2015: Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Education Minister, Punjab has asked the teachers to ensure the academic standards of the government schools and improve the education system.

Presiding over a meeting of 10 English teachers from each district, Dr. Cheema reviewed current academic years’ matriculation result in which around 80,000 students failed in English language.

To reach to a logical conclusion of this massive failure, Dr. Cheema prepared a questionnaire for the English teachers in which he has asked them to write down the reasons of the failure and also sought suggestions regarding further improvement in result of especially English language.

Meanwhile he had an in person communication with the teachers for such a low result. The scanned copies of questionnaire were projected on screen and Dr. Cheema directly discussed the questionnaire and subsequent replies of the teachers with the senior officers of the department of Education. Most of the suggestions and reasons given by the teacher were inappropriate like student belonged to poor families, inadequate staff, students not willing to attend the classes etc.

The Minister expressed concern over the deteriorating academic standards in the schools and said the teachers were more responsible for the decline than the students. It was a matter of grave concern that the replies given by the teachers projected on the screen were full of grammatical errors and lower standard of English, which signified that even teachers were not capable of giving good lessons of English to the students.

He directed all the officials related to education department to collect the suitable suggestions and reasons so that the system could be rectified as soon as possible and better results in the field of education could be drawn. The Minister also said if any changes required in the academic syllabi or in the current policies regarding education that should also be brought under consideration.

During the course of the meeting, Dr. Cheema said also said that the department of education was always opened to suggestions and would cooperate and support the teachers for the betterment of the students. He also mentioned that student’s poor economic conditions, areas backwardness and assigning the teachers to other duties could not be the reasons behind such a massive failure of the students. He argued further saying that there were some schools which had the same infrastructure and conditions but have shown comparatively better results.

Concluding the meeting, the Minister said that the teachers would be given proper training session especially teaching English language and appealed to the teacher to ensure right type of teaching so as to improve the academic standards in government schools.

In another programme after the meeting as many as 27 teachers were promoted to the post of head masters and were handed over the appointment letters according to their opted stations. Dr Cheema also handed over job letters to 12 persons on compassionate ground.

Prominent among others who were present in the meeting included DGSE, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal, DPI Mr. Balbir Singh Dhol, Deputy State Project Director Dr. Ginni Duggal and other senior officials of the department.