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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Imparting language skills to rural youth
Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar
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Even education officers see systemic flaws In
order to streamline the functioning of the state education machinery from the grassroots level, the Directorate of Education, Haryana, organised a meeting of all block education officers (BEOs) and other officials concerned last week. Most of the participants took it as an opportunity to apprise their higher authorities of the difficulties faced by them while functioning in the field. Their grievances ranged from facing problems in collecting the desired information to getting little respect from the school heads. Many BEOs complained of being overworked due to their area of operation being areas. On the other hand, the top bosses of the department, including the Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, the Director-General (Education) and the Director of Elementary Education, advised them to pay more visits to the schools to know about the problems and get the same sorted out. Some interesting points were thrown up at the meeting, although a practicable solution to these could not be reached. Anyhow, it gave enough material to the educationists and policy makers to ponder over. An analysis of the situation reveals that in the first place, there is no dearth of money for education sector in the state. Plenty of funds are available for the promotion of education under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and various schemes being run by the state government. Then, apart from the elaborate set-up at the state headquarters, there are District Education Officers (DEOs), Additional DEOs and Deputy DEOs at the district level. Besides, as many as 119 BEOs are functioning in the state. Each BEO gets a substantial amount of Rs 17,000 per month for arranging a vehicle for visiting the schools located in their area. Under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, teachers up to the level of school lecturers have been appointed as Assistant Block Research Coordinators (ABRCs) to assist the BEOs. Besides, they have been provided with clerical staff and other facilities like computer sets to do their job effectively and efficiently. Ample funds are being provided for school infrastructure and giving incentives to the meritorious students and those belonging to the weaker sections. The Edusat programme, which was till now confined to the science classes of urban schools, is planned to be extended to all classes of urban as well as rural schools. Still, the work is not going on as desired and the target of providing quality education to all is a far cry. On delving deeper into the circumstances leading to the present situation, one finds that the problem is fourfold and a multi-pronged strategy is required to tackle it. First and foremost, there is inequality in the areas under the jurisdiction of the BEOs. While some have merely 20 schools in their area of operation, others have nearly 60. Secondly, lack of coordination between the heads of schools and other officials of the Education Department is another factor responsible for frictions in the functioning of the system. Then, the conduct of the BEOs is another limiting factor, with allegations regarding the misuse of funds meant for vehicles being levelled against many of them. Senior officials and other experts in the realm of education even maintain that the old habits (read work-shirking) typical of government service, unorganised approach and corrupt practices of the field staff were responsible for the rot. The irresponsible behaviour and irrational decisions taken by school head also lead to numerous undesirable and avoidable court cases, putting unnecessary burden on the department officials. For instance, allegations of
favouritism in the appointment of guest teachers forced many a meritorious candidate to move court. Lack of interest in their work on part of the teaching staff and unwanted political interference in the functioning of the schools also holds back the realisation of the dream of providing quality education to all. Last but not the least, burdening the department officials, especially the teaching staff, with the mammoth task of dealing with heaps of official correspondence also needs to be looked into and resolved on a priority.
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Imparting language skills to rural youth The
Amardeep Singh Shergill Memorial College Mukandpur, Nawanshahr, organised a two-day conference on “Improving Spoken English in Rural Punjab” with the collaborative efforts of McMillan India Ltd. The conference was sponsored by an NRI, Mr S.S. Dhindsa. The objectives of the conference were to figure out the shortcomings prevailing in English language teaching, learning and acquiring and to take steps for channelising prolific activities in this area. After inaugurating the conference, the chief guest, Dr Kanwarjit Singh, DPI (Colleges), Punjab, in his address praised the principal and the managing committee for carrying out infrastructural development works and holding the conference for the betterment of rural youth. Dr Prem Singh, a veteran linguist, in his keynote address rued the slovenliness found both in teachers and students for learning the language. Uma Mani, chief editor, McMillan India Ltd, called for a joint effort on the part of teachers, syllabi makers, policy makers, scholars to take steps towards pragmatic approach in learning English without going back to history, ethnicity, culture, tradition and background. The first technical session of the conference was chaired by Prof. Pushpinder Syal from the Department of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh. She appreciated the voluntary efforts made by the college for the improvement of language skills of the rural youth. The second technical session was presided over by Dr Jatinder Sethi, who retired from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. He pointed out that there are two major hindrances in learning English-lack of competence and lack of confidence. He suggested certain practical approaches to impart learning at the general and professional levels. Other speakers who presented their papers were Dr Rana Nayyar, from the Department of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh; Dr Iqbal Judge, Government College, Chandigarh; Dr Ranjit Singh Rangila, CIIL, Mysore; Sunita Dhillon, S.R. Government College, Amritsar; Bhupinder Parihar, Government College, Ludhiana; Dr Surbhi Goyal, Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Ramnita Sharda, HMV, Jalandhar. A workshop on 'spoken English' was also organised in which Dr Prem Singh from Delhi University, Dr R.S. Rangeela from Mysore, Uma Mani, chief editor, McMillan India Ltd and Nivedita from Oxford University, London, presented valuable suggestions on the language acquisition. They emphasised that teachers should be hard at work and be curious about new words and trends. They should be vigilant for the errors made by students and guiding them to meet the need of the learner group. They advocated the use of inter-language during the transition stage of learning.
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Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar The College of Veterinary Science on the HAU campus will organise a 10-day training session on care and management of animals required in various research and educational experiments. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has cleared the proposal regarding the programme, apart from providing financial assistance required for the purpose. This was stated by the in charge of the Disease-Free Small Animal House, Dr P. K. Kapoor, who is also the course director. Dr Kapoor said the training session would begin on January 31 and up to 25 teachers serving in teaching, extension and research activities could participate in it. The registration fee is Rs 50 and the interested candidates can submit their applications till January 20 —Contributed by Sunit Dhawan
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