There is an ongoing agitation to revert the medium of instruction in Diocesan schools from Konkani to English. One of the reasons which are put forward to bolster this demand is that the current Konkani medium in the Primary produces a lot of drop-outs in the Secondary where the medium is suddenly changed to English. This contention needs to be evaluated in the light of data which should be readily available with the Diocesan Society which has been running its schools for the last almost fifty years. To begin with, the medium in its schools was English and this was changed to Konkani in 1991. The current rate of drop-outs can, therefore, be compared with that existing prior to 1991.
The drop-out rate may not be related to the medium of instruction alone. There could also be other factors which contribute to this malaise. We need to identify and remedy these as well. In pre-Liberation Goa, a Catholic child entered the English medium high school (std. V) after completing his Primary in Portuguese; the Hindu child would first complete the fourth standard in Marathi, follow it up with Portuguese and then take up English. Whether the medium of instruction was Marathi, Portuguese or English, a teacher always insisted upon the child comprehending the matter that was taught. Thus in the Marathi or Portuguese (private) schools the teacher would explain the matter in Konkani. My Portuguese teacher would translate every Portuguese word and sentence into Konkani and I had to do the reading as well as the translation to his satisfaction; if he were not satisfied, *_I would not move to the next lesson!_* In those days, the standard in which the child studied did not depend on his age. The same method was followed in the English high school; any difficult matter would be explained in Konkani. With this aim in view, most schools had the unwritten rule that no Keralite teacher (and we had quite a few of these) would enter a class in the first three standards, i.e. V, VI, VII. This ensured that a student in VII+ class had adequate grasp of the English language to follow any teaching in this language, whether by Goan or Keralite teachers. Compare this with the situation existing today. The child enters the V standard with the bare minimum knowledge of English taught by a Konkani teacher whose aptitude in this language might not be up to the mark. But the V standard teacher rattles off some mumbo-jumbo which goes well above the head of the student. The level of the language used in the text too is beyond the grammar and vocabulary already covered by the student. Hardly any teacher will condescend to explain the matter in Konkani. But the student must *_write_* his examination. The teacher circumvents this by dictating questions and answers which the student is then expected to memorize for the next day. This is followed by the spelling and dictation of 'difficult' words. Activities and experiments (science) suggested in the prescribed texts, are not actually conducted / performed. The so-called 'laboratory journal' contains only matter dictated by the teacher. This procedure is exactly the same as the one that was followed in the pre-1991 era. But, unfortunately for the present child, in the first four years of schooling, during which he understood what he learnt, he has not developed his rote learning capability commensurate to the volume of matter to be memorized; and this can lead to more failures and drop-outs. Remedies (a) To begin with, rote learning should be dispensed with post haste. (b) Stress must be laid on comprehension and application of the matter taught. The students must be compelled, nay encouraged, to write their own answers to set questions; and the same corrected by the teacher. Even in non-language subjects, the corrections should also apply to errors in the use of the English language in the answer. (It is a mistaken notion that language errors are not the concern of the subject teacher.) If this load is too high for a teacher, reduce the maximum strength of a division. The sample questions given in the text are only aids to learning; they should not at all be used for the exams. This will enhance the aptitude of the child in handling English as a tool in the communication of his thoughts. This will also encourage regular study and further do away with the tension and fear of examinations. (c) Activities and experiments must necessarily be conducted as they enforce the learning process; they ensure that the learning is meaningful and retained longer. The teacher (and students too) should be encouraged to devise innovative ways to reinforce the teaching. (d) The teacher must ensure that the children understand the matter taught by taking recourse to explaining in Konkani, if need be (especially at the V and VI standards). This might be too much of a burden for at least some of the teachers who may not be adept in Konkani. Therefore, teacher-guides must be provided giving Konkani versions of the text (both Devanagari and Roman scripts, since many teachers are not conversant enough with Devanagari ). (e) English language must be taught as a library language. Today it is taught as if it were the first language of the child. (f) An experienced teacher of English must be associated with the preparation of subject text-books, in order to ensure that the level of English grammar and vocabulary used therein is within the grasp of students in that class. (g) Language texts are designed to take the child step by step in the attainment of proficiency in the actual handling of the language in question. However, their utilization leaves much to be desired. For example, there might be a lesson on Festivals which is say fifteenth in the Table of Contents. But the teacher takes it up just before the Ganesh festival, so that the teaching would be "topical"! Consequently, this throws the child's grammatical progress haywire. This procedure must be banned; the lessons/topics must be covered in exactly the order in which they are lined up in the text. Sebastian Borges (The above appeared in the OPinionatED column of oHERALDo dated 5/4/2011)
