Teacher of Hindi teaches English in this Rajasthan government English school, students study under tree

Students at an English medium school in the Civil Lines area here have been attending classes under a tree ever since its inaugural by the state government last month.

Not only does the school face shortage of rooms, furniture and other infrastructure, some of the handful of teachers available here are not qualified to teach in English. Some teachers were also transferred, from many parts of district on the basis of interview, to this school which has only nine rooms for 273 students. A committee of education officials selected these teachers for the English medium school.

Hindi medium teacher of Mathematics, Anup Singh, was found teaching wrong English to class 4 students. “I am a Hindi medium teacher but I was told to teach English to different classes,” he said.

Himani Kumari, a class 7 student, who thinks the government should on schools and provide student basic facilities, said: “We sit on the ground under the tree due to lack of rooms.”

“The school does not have sufficient rooms for children. It has recently been opened and we need time to provide facilities,” said principal Bhawna Singh of the English medium school. “There are no furniture and proper rooms for children. But officials assured that they would provide us with all facilities in the school within a year. Teachers who don’t have good knowledge of English, will not be given classes,” she said.

Ashok Dhakre, assistant district project coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, said the government is trying to provide all facilities such as furniture, rooms in the recently opened English medium schools.

Classes 1 to 8 here are English medium, while classes 9 and 10 are still Hindi medium. From the next academic session, these two classes will also be made English medium.

The state government will set up at least one English medium school in every district, school education minister Govind Singh Dotasra has said recently. He said the government will also open a student help centre of the secondary education board in every district.

Dotasra said the government has decided to open English medium schools considering the importance of language for children of the state. It will give a chance to children coming from all sections of the society to study in English medium school, he said in a statement.

He said on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the state government has decided that each district will have a school of up to class 8 in the name of Mahatma Gandhi.