The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Rural students are fast picking up English

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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Rural students are fast picking up English

L. Renganathan

Thanks to SSA, primary children are able to read newspapers

500 students imparted direct training with interactive English CDs at 10 centres
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan gives priority to informal conversations among students

KARUR: Amidst vast parched tracts of Aravakurichi region in Karur district, the oasis of sunflower crops and panchayat union primary school children strike an allegory to each other. For, both are blooming well and true, and both are evolutions of the recent past.

While the return from the sunflower crop is good for farmers, the investment in young minds is turning out to be remarkable in the government educational institutions in the district.

Courtesy the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), children in the primary schools are able to read English newspapers and are trying to make that a routine.

Growing self-confidence

Lest their other abilities are hidden, one has to give it to them whether it is the ease with which they handle peers, the deftness with which they waltz through the number maze or their general disposition which oozes self confidence every minute of interaction.

No more can one hear the loud noise that would greet visitors to any public schools, especially in rural areas. Quiet groups of children, eager to harness knowledge and yearning to move up the ladder gracefully without the fear of examinations, give a glance and carry on with their given task, unassumingly.

Activity-based learning

The activity-based learning (ABL) modules have given the children much input to digest and the results are now there to be reaped. At the Panchayat Union Primary School at Shenbaganam in Aravakurichi block, children pick up English language newspapers, without any inhibition and with a little assistance from the teacher, and go through the reports.

They pause frequently through the reports but with confidence seek to know the meaning and the usage of the words that trouble them.

“Previously, there was no worthy farming except in certain pockets of the area. In the recent past, the arrival of sunflower crop and its revenue generation capacity has changed the profile of the fields and farmers in the region. If we are pleased with that, we are proud that the children of even rural areas are able to read and write English,” observes Ezhuchi G. Selvam a native of Venjamangudalur. That sums up the feelings of the farmers and parents of the region.

Sources associated with the SSA point to the importance that is being given to reading and a child in the primary section (up to standard five) learns around 130 words per year. Priority is accorded to informal conversations- so, even without teachers’ help, students read.

Reading is the thrust area, they say. Mind mapping done by the children themselves is a great source of inspiration and has been the greatest revelation in the school education scene in the recent years, they add.

Grammar workshops

Grammar workshops and English communicative skill development training were conducted for the teachers who have now come to enjoy the lessons and the classes.

Regional Institute of English, South India, Bangalore, prepared a series of interactive CDs named “Hello English” and they were circulated in each block where 500 students were imparted direct training in 10 centres.

To cover all schools

Currently a programme to extend the scope of reach of the audiovisual programme and cover all primary schools in Karur district is under way.

The farmers are reaping the benefits of raising sunflower crop and the students, the fruits of SSA.

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