Kottayam: With an aim to prepare teachers in both lower primary and upper primary government schools in Kerala to help students who suffer from lack of language skills, the state education department has devised a new training program.
Under the initiative, LP and UP teachers in the state will undergo a one-day training which lays emphasis on the correct usage of Malayalam consonants and vowels, on November 5.
The new scheme has been incorporated into the regular cluster training program for teachers, which will soon be extended to the aided sector as well, officials said.
A recent survey has revealed that a majority of the students from Class 1 to Class 7 in state's government schools make lots of mistakes while using their mother tongue.
Though they have decent understanding of grammar and possess verbal skills, they lack basic skills of writing and pronouncing each letter in the alphabet correctly, the study said.
The education department through the block resources center (BRC) had instructed teachers several times to make efforts to improve the sloppy language skills of students. The department had also asked them to seek help from the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) to enable students have proper grip over the language.
As there was no significant improvement in the language skills of the students, the department has decided to impart training to teachers first before assessing the proficiency of students.
The training module was designed by the education deputy director and the State SSA project officer. Teachers will be trained by the language experts attached to the block-level BRC centers. The training for these officials has already begun.
Meanwhile, pro-UDF teachers’ organizations have threatened to boycott the cluster training program citing that it will be inconvenient to attend classes as it is scheduled for the week’s sixth working day.