Himachal Pradesh to introduce English in Class 1 >From Indo-Asian News Service
Shimla, Nov 26 (IANS) In a bid to improve the level of English in government schools, the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to introduce lessons in the language from Class 1 instead of Class 4 from the next session. "This is being done in order to reduce the gap between students going to public and convent schools and those attending government schools, whose levels of English are far lower than the first group," said a government spokesman. "With this decision, around 700,000 tiny tots will start learning English in government schools starting from the next academic session in March. At present English is taught from Class 4 onwards," the official said. Himachal Pradesh's literacy rate in 2001 was 77 percent, far higher than the national average of 65 percent. "No less than renowned economist and Noble laureate Amartya Sen has lauded the efforts of Himachal Pradesh in education in recent years," the spokesman said. Of the 14,000 government schools, 10,572 are primary schools with almost 30,000 teachers. In 1948, there were only 261 such schools, he said. Interestingly, there is no gap between male and female enrolment in the state. The spokesman said the government was giving attention to education for girls and weaker sections. A national programme for the education of girls at elementary levels was launched this year and Rs.1.1 billion has been spent on it. --Indo-Asian News Service ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
