Bangalore: The State Government has decided to introduce English from the first standard in all government and aided schools in the State. Now, the Department of Public Instruction and the Directorate of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) are faced with the tough job of framing new syllabus.

M. Madan Gopal, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction, said officials of the department, DSERT, Regional Institute of English (RIE), English Language Training Centre (ELTC) and subject experts met on Thursday to discuss the issues involved with introducing English from the first standard from the next academic year.

Mr. Madan Gopal told The Hindu here that terms of the formation of the syllabus committee had been worked out at the meeting on Thursday. It had been decided that DSERT would be the nodal agency while RIE and ELTC would be implementing agencies.

About training teachers, he said that when the Government had decided to introduce English from third standard, one lakh teachers had been trained by the department. The department would procure the list of teachers who had been trained. DSERT had been asked to prepare bi-lingual guidebooks for teachers, he added.

Mr. Madan Gopal said the syllabus committee, after it was formed, would study the way English was introduced at the primary level in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. "In Tamil Nadu, the language was introduced at the primary level in a progressive manner," he said.

According to him, if English was introduced simultaneously in first, second, third and fourth standards, one cycle would be completed by the 2011-12 academic year.

"If English is introduced at the zero-level in classes one to four next year, we would only have to revise textbooks of classes two to five for the 2008-09 academic year. For the 2009-08, textbooks of classes three to five would need revision.

The system would be completely implemented in four years," he said. The department had obtained textbooks, workbooks and guidebooks from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Officials of DSERT would study them and based on the recommendations of the committee, the syllabus would be framed, he said.

Sources told The Hindu that DSERT had sent a proposal to form an 11-member syllabus committee to the Government.

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