Commuway Trainent

COMMUWAY conducts "Demonstrative COMMUNICATION SKILL" training programme with a key focus on "Speaking & Writing Skill" for a group of secondary-level students of a prestigious Chennai-based schools.

Do’s and Don’ts of National & State Government for "Introduction of Spoken English as a Subject in Indian School Education System"

In order to overcome the root problems of communication skill in the school education system from kindergarten onwards, there is a need to follow the do’s and don’ts for ensuring an effective and efficient acquisition of “Spoken English” and build a strong platform for competence and performance of English communication. Some of the significant do’s and don’ts for achieving the dream of total English communication competence among school’s students are:
a) Government should not attempt to adopt the "cut & paste" patchwork to haphazardly and belatedly convert or transform the vernacular-medium government schools teacher into the English-medium government teachers by imparting a crash, capsule or module-based in-service training programme.
b) Government should understand that acquisition of listening or speaking in English is a skill, and there should be a long-term planning, allocation and investment in education.
c) The top policy makers in the government should mass-recruit a new crop of in-house English teachers with fluent writing and speaking skills, and train, groom, and guide them to achieve the objectives of 100% common minimum competency in “Spoken English.”
d) Government should realize the fact that the use of mother tongue for all other subjects is acceptable and desirable but English must be taught intensively and extensively through constant and consistent use of English through the application of LSRW skill.
e) Wherever possible, government should build infrastructure and train teachers to take the assistance of audio-visual aids like CDs and DVDs to enhance spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
f) Government should train teachers so as to encourage students to get exposed to converse in English through learner-centred interactive classroom.
g) Government should initiate action plans to co-ordinate “Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing (LSRW) skill” with the respective human organs of ear, mouth, eye, and hand, and train students for specific skill development.
h) Government should not make an action plan of developing “Speaking Skill” by establishing a mobile library as it will impact in developing reading skill, not speaking skill.
i) Government should not plan to hire professors from London and Finland to conduct workshop on English for exposing them to develop English Skill.
j) Government should plan to hire the Tamilnadu- and India-based senior, experienced, and retired professionals with specialization in “Applied English, Phonetics, and Linguistics” for training & monitoring the English teachers to expose themselves to develop English Skill.
k) Government should ensure that all the English teachers involved in the competence development of “Spoken English” at school level should first possess the common minimum competency in “Spoken English.”
l) The common minimum duration competency in “Spoken English” for primary teachers should be 5 minutes, secondary teachers be 10 minutes, and senior secondary teachers be 15 minutes.
m) Government should develop a roadmap for effective implementation and monitoring of teacher’s English competence, performance, training, and delivery at district, block, and school levels.
n) The common minimum duration competency in “Spoken English” for primary students should be one minute, secondary students be two minutes, and senior secondary students be three minutes.
o) In order to ensure an effective implementation and monitoring of both teacher’s and student’s English competence, performance, training, and delivery at district, block, and school levels, government should establish an independent watchdog who should report & update to District Education Officer, Block Education Officer, and School Education Officer.
p) Government should conduct an assessment system and a performance analysis of teachers and students for analyzing the competence of “Spoken English” at individual, school, block and district levels.
q) Through snap inspection and analysis, government should monitor and implement the historic decision of “Spoken English” not only for government & private schools but also for CBSE and international schools
r) Government should try to link the language skill in “Spoken English” with “Soft Skill” & “Behaviour Skill.”
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Suggestion/Input for Quality Teacher's Education in 21st Century Veteran India

With a view to seeking inputs for the holistic plan, policy, and guidelines for ensuring high quality effective teaching ecosystem and efficient teachers in 21st century India, here are some key suggestions for your consideration and suitable actions.
1. Indian Civil Services should have a separate Indian Education Service like IAS, IFS, IPS, with an expertise of specific subject domain .
2. India should have a Central University for Teacher's Education with state/regional centres.
3. The Central university should regulate, monitor, and guide the teacher's training for Kindergarten, Bachelor of Education, Master of Education, University Teacher's Education.
4. The course duration for B.Ed. or M. Ed should be three or four years with the key focus on practice teaching with innovation and creativity.
5. All the mushrooming of fake degree through poor quality of teacher's education and institution run by money-making stakeholders (Businessperson, Industrailist, Politicians, Real Estate Professional) should be closed.
6. The culture of rehabilitating anyone into education as a teacher if s/he fails in other domains, should be totally discouraged, and instead, the culture of recruiting only quality professionals into education through competitive examination should be encouraged.
7. The central education department should call the state counterparts to ensure common national syllabus for science, mathematics, social science, computer science, environmental science, English at primary, secondary, and senior secondary levels.
8. There should be only one central board with regional/state jurisdiction to encourage the teaching and training of regional social, histrory, geography, arts, dance, music, and allied subjects.
9. Teacher should be trained, guided and utilized only to acquire and enhance skills for his/her subject, and they should never be detailed for allied administrative duties of data collection, fee collection, food management, discipline, enumeration, data management.
10. There should be a national centralised content design & development team with professionals of Instructional Designers, Subject Matter Expert, Media/Animation Developer, and Graphic Designer to produce quality classroom/online teaching content.
11. The central education department should have common subject-wise library of content for delivery, presentation, modification, and quality assessment.
12. There should be an infrasturctural development at school level for delivery & presentation of classromm/online teaching, and also training to teachers for the methodology of utilisation of modern classroom/online content.
13. There should be a national teacher eligibility test for recruiting and developing the skill and expertise of subject teachers, and the key focus should always be continuous creative and innovative approach, and totally discourage rote-learning in teaching, training, assessment and evaluation.
14. There should be a library of subject-wise Teacher's teacher at national, state, and district level, and a plan should be in place to groom and hone the skill of teachers through creative and conceptual teaching.
15. There should be national level data for teacher's career path, and their competence & performance should be graded, recorded, and monitored for quality enhancement of teacher's education.
16. There should be a national consensus on a 10-year-ban on reservation for the selection, recruitment, deployment, and promotion in education and health sector.
17. The key focus should be on state-government instituions whose teacher's and learner's performance are generally sad and pathetic.
18. There should be a national, regional, state, and district-level feedback & assessment system of teacher's quality teaching, training, monitoring and development with strict compliance system.
19. A strong, unbiased, and quick action should be taken against the defaulting professional or habitual offenders in the teaching fraternity to send a signal to all that no complacency will be tolerated as teachers are not only a professional but a national builder & future creator.
20. A competence- & performance-based payment system should be evolved with a transparent system of upgrading teachers for exceptional contributions, and downgrading or even dismissing teachers for defaming/tainting the image of education and teaching.
21. There should be subject-wise national, regional, state, and district park for practical presentation and conceptual analysis with a system of effective and efficient collaboration and coordination at all levels.
This is for readers to their examination, consideration and implementation of the facts, inputs, and suggestions for making a new India in 21st century as a knowledge & creative hub.
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A Ray of Hope for Holistic Education in Tamilnadu

Origin

A teacher-turned politician, who had been the former three-time legislator, M. Appavu from Radhapuram legislative constituency in Tirunelveli district, approached the Madras High Court on 15th Sep. 2018 under a division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad to direct the state government to consider introducing "Spoken English" as a subject in all Tamil medium schools in the state from kindergarten onwards. The court first wondered as to how to involve itself in the policy matters of the state government, and but, finally directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities concerned.

Fundamental Fact

In this age of information & technology, digitization, and intense competitiveness, English language acquisition is imperative in the contemporary globalised and industrialized world. English as a language should not merely be taught just as a subject rather than a language of communication. Believe it or not, English is not only a national link language but also a global link language for communication, excellence and achievement. It is more important for those who, only possessing vernacular language, wish to leave their native region, state or country. So, both nationally and regionally, there is a need to introduce "Spoken English course to students from Tamil or any regional medium language.
Further, the bench directed the advocate to get details such as the number of schools which are government-run, aided, and unaided - wherein English Medium section had been opened and continued.

On deeper analysis and interpretation of school education infrastructure, it is found that Tamilnadu has about 37,211 government schools, 8,403 government-aided schools, and 12,419 private self-financing schools. These three types of schools in Tamilnadu impart education to about 1.25 crore students studying from LKG to class 12. Of the total 1.25 crore students, around 40 lakhs students study in the privately-run 12,419 schools. And, the annual budget for the state government for school education is about 27,000 crore.

Government Planning

The plan by Tamilnadu’s school education department is in place that with effect from the third term commencing from January 2020, government schools will dedicate one period per week to enrich, transform, and redefine the English speaking skills of students. English teachers will be provided with additional materials and activities, and trained by the expert to handle the training module prepared by TNSCRT.
For this, the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) has prepared handbooks for teachers for the training. A common handbook has been prepared for classes I to V, while classes VI to IX will have separate handbooks for each class. In addition, videos for teaching will also be uploaded soon to the Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Platform. In addition, Kalvi Tholaicatchi, the TV channel run by the government for education, will have programmes on spoken English training.

Based on the government order, all schools have been asked to formulate a new time-table so as to integrate “Spoken English” module for all students from class 1-9. In this, 90 minutes of training per week will be for class 1 to 5, and 45 minutes per week be for class 6 to 9.

Linguistic Challenges

In this context, it is important to note that although English is taught as the second language from class 2 to 12 in Tamil medium aided and unaided schools, these students find it difficult to understand easily, speak fluently and write correctly in English despite scoring high marks at 10, 11 and 12 levels. Further, when they join any professional or academic courses, these Tamil medium students do not perform fairly in professional courses due to their inability to speak or communicate in English. Furthermore, these drawbacks and pitfalls of school education lead students to continue even in their work places when they become employees in any organization. Contrastively, students studying in CBSE, matriculation, global and international schools comparatively find it easy to understand, associate and communicate with both teachers and students effectively and efficiently.

Legal Background

In view of the linguistic facts, challenges and planning by the Tamilnadu government to introduce “Spoken English” as a compulsory subject for the government school students, it makes good sense to understand, analyse and interpret the legal background of the matter. Here are some key outlines of the legal background in the chronological order. These outlines are:

15th Sep. 2018 - Representation on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition to consider introducing “spoken English” as a separate subject in all Tamil-medium schools

29th Oct. 2018 – An advice to the government to consider the Public Interest Litigation under a division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad

12th Nov. 2018 - Next hearing under a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam impleaded the director of Tamilnadu State Council for Education, Research and Training, and directed the state to file a response by 6th December 2018

5th Jan. 2019 - Direction by the Madras High court bench to the Secretary of School Education Department to decide on the representation for the compulsory introduction of "Spoken English" as a separate subject in all Tamil-medium schools

16th Aug. 2019 - Issuance of a notice by the Madras High Court to contempt of court petition by a division bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and C V Karthikeyan for failure to implement a court direction to introduce “spoken English” in government schools across the state to the Secretary of the School Education department, Mr. Pradeep Yadav, IAS, returnable by September 4

26th Nov. 2019 - An order sent by the state education department to all chief educational officers for the introduction of activity-based "Spoken English" training from class 1 to 9

Need Analysis

Having understood and analyzed the legal background of the matter in the context of introduction of “Spoken English” for the government school students, it is paramount to note that when students of government schools appear in all-India or state-level competitive examinations for an entry into professional courses, they either fail or get disqualified in the competitive examination. If they want to take on the challenges of competition, they are forced to spend a huge amount of money towards coaching. If communicative skill on English is imparted, these students could compete with the students from matriculation and CBSE schools. Therefore, there is an urgent need to lay emphasis on "Spoken English" and "Communication Skill" in all the Tamil-medium schools from primary, through secondary to senior secondary levels by introducing "Spoken English as a compulsory subject.

COMMUWAY’s Observation & Analysis

Despite English being a subject for 12 years in school education system in Tamilnadu and other states of India, training and teaching on communicative English language is neither imparted nor encouraged. This phenomenon of incompetency in communicative English is not only in Tamil and English medium government schools but also in privately-run English medium, CBSE, and International school.
Keeping these facts into account, COMMUWAY endeavoured hard to make a holistic observation and analysis on the practical situation of “COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH” in the state of Tamilnadu and all-India levels. It is observed that problem of inefficiency in communicative English is not only a problem of Tamilnadu but also a problem across India. Further, it is also observed that there might be a difference in the intensity and quantum of the problem in communicative inefficiency in government schools, private schools, global schools, CBSE schools, and international schools, but such deficiency of illness in “Spoken English” always exists and is prevalent across states, languages, regions, and board examinations.

In the light of the aforesaid facts, some of the key observations and assessments in “communicative competency and incompetency” are:

a) 90-95% of students, including high scoring ones, from government schools in India find it difficult to converse in English.
b) 75-80% of students from private schools in India find it difficult to converse in English.
c) 60-65% of students from CBSE/ICSE schools in India find it difficult to converse in English.
d) 50-55% of students from global/international schools in India find it difficult to converse in English.
Therefore, no matter whether students study in government schools, or private schools, CBSE/ICSE schools, or international schools, problem of incompetency in English communication skill always exists and persists. So, there is a need to understand, analyze, and interpret the problems and challenges of “Spoken English” and attempt to identify and find solutions for the holistic enrichment of communicative competence and performance.
Do’s and Don’ts
In order to overcome the root problems of communication skill in the school education system from kindergarten onwards, there is a need to follow the do’s and don’ts for ensuring an effective and efficient acquisition of “Spoken English” and build a strong platform for competence and performance of English communication. Some of the significant do’s and don’ts for achieving the dream of total English communication competence among Tamilnadu School’s students are:
a) Government should not attempt to adopt the "cut & paste" patchwork to haphazardly and belatedly convert or transform the Tamil-medium government schools teacher into the English-medium government teachers by imparting a crash, capsule or module-based in-service training programme.
b) Government should understand that acquisition of listening or speaking in English is a skill, and there should be a long-term planning, allocation and investment in education.
c) The top policy makers in the government should mass-recruit a new crop of in-house English teachers with fluent writing and speaking skills, and train, groom, and guide them to achieve the objectives of 100% common minimum competency in “Spoken English.”
d) Government should realize the fact that the use of mother tongue for all other subjects is acceptable and desirable but English must be taught intensively and extensively through constant and consistent use of LSRW skill.
e) Wherever possible, government should build infrastructure and train teachers to take the assistance of audio-visual aids like CDs and DVDs to enhance spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
f) Government should train teachers so as to encourage students to get exposed to converse in English through learner-centred interactive classroom.
g) Government should initiate action plans to co-ordinate “Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing (LSRW) skill” with the respective human organs of ear, mouth, eye, and hand, and train students for specific skill development.
h) Government should not make an action plan of developing “Speaking Skill” by establishing a mobile library as it will impact in developing reading skill, not speaking skill.
i) Government should not plan to hire professors from London and Finland to conduct workshop on English for exposing them to develop English Skill.
j) Government should plan to hire senior, experienced, and retired professionals with specialization in “Applied English, Phonetics, and Linguistics” for training & monitoring the English teachers to expose themselves to develop English Skill.
k) Government should ensure that all the English teachers involved in the competence development of “Spoken English” at school level should first possess the common minimum competency in “Spoken English.”
l) The common minimum duration competency in “Spoken English” for primary teachers is 5 minutes, secondary teachers 10 minutes, and senior secondary teachers 15 minutes.
m) Government should develop a roadmap for effective implementation and monitoring of teacher’s English competence, performance, training, and delivery at district, block, and school levels.
n) Government should also develop a roadmap for effective implementation and monitoring of student’s English competence, performance, training, and delivery at district, block, and school levels.
o) Through snap inspection and analysis, government should monitor and implement the historic decision of “Spoken English” not only for government & private schools but also for CBSE and international schools
p) The common minimum duration competency in “Spoken English” for primary students should be one minute, secondary students be two minutes, and senior secondary students be three minutes.
q) Government should try to link the language skill in “Spoken English” with “Soft Skill” & “Behaviour Skill.”
r) Government should conduct an assessment system and a performance analysis of teachers and students for analyzing the competence of “Spoken English” at individual, school, block and district levels.

Conclusion

In the light of the aforesaid facts, it makes good sense to understand, analyse and conclude that Tamilnadu school education system is bent upon initiating a path-breaking decision to commence a ‘Spoken English’ module as part of the curriculum in order to enrich and reinforce the academic, professional, and employability quotient levels of students in the job market.
The historic and foresighted initiative of introducing "Spoken English" by the Tamilnadu government deserves high level of appreciation for bringing about the changes in the existing education system so that these government school students could not only challenge the private school students but also face the national and international level competitive examination.
Further, it is expected from the government and academic stakeholders to implement the policy of introducing “Spoken English” not only for government school students but also for private matriculation, CBSE, and international school students. This approach towards the introduction of “Spoken English” will help build a transparent, accountable, and holistic enrichment and empowerment of Tamilnadu’s school students, and redefine them to face the challenges of professional and competitive world.
Finally, such a historic and solemn initiative by Tamilnadu to introduce “Spoken English” for school-level students is worthy enough to be followed by other states of India so that all school students across India should be able to get exposed to the globally-recognized English language, and explore their opportunities in this competitive world for empowering and redefining their life and future. Ultimately, this initiative will enable them to establish a happy, healthy, competitive, prosperous and prospective world for the futuristic development of human resources through linguistic competence and performance.

Disclaimer - These inputs are based on online & newspaper content.

• Demonetization: A Gamble by Central Government

Demonetization is a bravely-strategized historic gamble by the central government of India, led by the premier Mr. Narendra Modi. On the one hand, this gamble is thickly coated with huge social, economic and political risk. On the other hand, there is a trace of immense gain earned by designing and developing a foundation of transparency and accountability.

Historical Background

India had, in the past, attempted for demonetization of Indian Currency by various governments in the pre- and post-independence era in 1946 and 1978. This drive had been long overdue, and the present government took the risk of demonetizing the high-value denomination of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 on 8th Nov. 2016. This path was carpeted with full of thorns as there was an involvement of multiple agencies like tax, law, legislature, investigators, logisticians and many more that have to work in varying permutations and combinations. And, no one took the risk of gambling with the problems and challenges of demonetization.

Immediate Response

The response from the common people reflected the ray of hope but due to inefficient planning, the commoners were forced to suffer for their own money. Politically, one set of opposition politicians branded this act as a grave historic and monumental blunder. But, another group of oppositions displayed high degree of confidence in this historic initiative of demonetization. There were lots of ups and downs in the rules and regulations by the central banking agency but it was done to tweak the suitable changes based on the emerging feedback from the demonetization drive.
These changes brought immense criticisms for the central government and central bank of India. Sometimes, it was detected to have differences between the government and governing bodies. Sometimes, anger and frustrations dominated the process of demonetization but the present government took this bold decision based on strong conviction of social and economic vision and mission that reflected the fragrance of rationality and reasoning in the government’s outlook and efficacy.

It is to be borne in mind that derecognizing these high value currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 as legal tender is a herculean task. Our country displayed a sense of nationalistic and patriotic temperament during these hard days from 8th Nov. 2016 to 30th Dec. 2017. Similarly, the country never hesitated in becoming uproarious and impatient when the circumstances forced common public to stand for hours to withdraw their own money. And, even the bank and ATM went cashless. But, intention was solemn to cleanse corruption, black money, fake currency and terrorism funding.

Repercussion and Challenges

Demonetization influenced our life socially, politically, economically, commercially, and industrially in multiple ways. Some of the key elements of demonetizing impacts are:
a) There was long queue for withdrawal and deposits of money.
b) There was absence of money in bank and ATM.
c) People became impatient as sustaining life became a challenge.
d) Absence of sufficient circulation of currency created havoc and panicky among common public.
e) There was shortage of low-value denominations of currency.
f) There seemed inefficiency in logistical, operational and strategic planning in the ex*****on of currency distribution and availability.
g) Banks had huge deposits but there was no sufficient currency to re-monetized the demonetized currency.
h) Trade, industry, and commercial transactions were hugely hit.
i) Sale of automobile industry was badly hit by 24% decline in Dec. 2016.
j) Medium and low sized industries were totally crippled.
k) The worst affected were labourers and farmers from unorganized sectors.
l) There was a sign of poor public & private investment, and slow growth caused by the negative public sentiment.
m) There was monitoring by Supreme Court, although it did not object to its intent, but raised doubts on its implementation.

Opportunity and Solution

Despite all the hurdles and disturbance caused by demonetization, there is a ray of hope gleaned with silver lining. It is true that India went through a period of pang during the last 60 days, and still there is trace of demonetizing impact in our life. But, all these problems and challenges are coated with huge opportunity for us to find solutions for innumerable problems. Some of these are:
a) There has been success in tracing the leads and links of black money.
b) A sense of fear is created in the minds of dishonest and fraudulent people.
c) The business of counterfeit currency has been uprooted.
d) A shockwave has been created in the terrorist- and Maoist-related activities.
e) A foundation is being laid to unearth the black money.
f) There is an opportunity to reinforce the tax enforcement agency through effective monitoring and intelligence.
g) A path has been carved to move towards digital economy that strengthens cashless and less-cash economy.
h) An opportunity is created through this gamble to make rural and semi-urban people become digitally literate.
i) System through process-based rules is being developed to ensure accountability and transparency in transactions.
j) It is a boon to catch tax evaders who disturb and discourage the eco-system of our development.
k) Life of everyday struggle caused by demonetization is slowly getting diminished.

Therefore, all these challenges and opportunities are the cause of demonetization, and it is for us to grab this opportunity to usher in an era of transparency, honesty, integrity, and accountability.

Keeping all the aforesaid factors into account, there is an ample reason to appreciate the efforts of our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, who has taken this monumental stride to fight against black money, fake currency, terrorism funding, and corruption. It is true that in the process of making demonetization process viable and reliable, we have made and have been making a lot of short-term sacrifices in the hope of gaining long-term gains. Believe it or not, today we may not realize, but each and every action and reaction of demonetization will become of part of our history to make a great, powerful, prosperous, and happy India.

Ultimately, it will be appropriate for us to forget the past, and think of making better future by effectively and efficiently implementing the gamble plan of demonetization by the central government. And, all of us ought to give our helping hands to make this mission and vision of the powerful India a great success.