Reasons and Remedies of Poor Language Proficiency in Students of Elementary Classes(I-VIII) in Kendriya Vidyalayas

Reasons and Remedies of Poor Language Proficiency in  Students of  Elementary Classes(I-VIII) in Kendriya Vidyalayas

Unlike state –run-schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas admit students in Class I who hail from diverse cultures and different family backgrounds. Some of them join after attending two years of kindergarten schooling where alphabets of Hindi & English are   learnt. They also learn how words can be formed with the help of  letters. Besides this they also learn counting, addition and subtraction etc. Whereas some students who do not get access to pre-schooling (Kindergarten) directly join class I with no background of schooling.

Secondly the admission in class I is a long drawn process which continues up to September. Those who join late lag behind. Schools do not make any specific plan for such children.

Thirdly an extremely unique situation arises when a newly opened school in Civil Sector moves to its new building where the number of sections are increased paving way for fresh admissions. Though admission is granted as per policy and priority yet most of the students who are admitted in these classes hail from schools where the medium of instruction is their mother tongue. How will  these students  cope with the English medium instruction directly in Primary Classes remains a difficult question?

Here teacher does face a great challenge. Her/His prime focus remains on the coverage of syllabus and the remediation which is earnestly needed  by such students remains usually  ignored. This does not happen in class I only rather it goes on year after year and a clear learning gap could be seen between the bright and bloomers. In fact, bloomers don’t bloom to their maximum capability since they are not nurtured timely. As a result, you will find umpteen number of students in class V who are unable to read and write properly. Due to their poor command over English they also don’t fair well in Maths & EVS. I have seen so many students in higher classes also who fail to read and write properly.

If this issue is not addressed, we cannot dream of bringing qualitative academic growth in KVS.

Focus of Authorities on Class Xll &  X Results:

It has been noticed that supervisory authorities starting from KVS HQ to RO, and RO to school remain primarily concentrated about the performance of students in public examination of X and XII . Their performances are analysed at RO/ School level and so many steps are also taken after the conduct of Half Yearly /Pre Board examination to improve upon the performance . And there is no doubt that our results in class XII & X remain excellent in terms of quantity. The performance of teachers who teach these classes is monitored. Sometimes advisory notices / memorandums/ appreciation letters are also issued to teachers. KVS has implemented so many policies like Strengthening of Primary Education, Common Minimum Programme and of late Back to Basics. But the situation in Primary Classes has not changed much due to poor grip of students in respect of English Language.

The base of the Pyramid (Elementary stage class l –VIII) remains ignored so far as the language proficiency is concerned. The following factors contribute to status-quo.

·        No PRT/TGT is held accountable for their poor performance in elementary classes.   

·        Principals/HMs/Higher authorities do not pay adequate attention to the learning of languages at this stage.

·        MILLs are nowhere tested.

·        Students are promoted year after year.

·        Least Involvement of Parents of Students who remain weak in Languages.

·        Relying on old tradition method of teaching.

·        No remediation plans.

REMEDEIS:

(i)      Survey to Know the Present Status of Reading & Writing:-

Each PRT / TGT teaching English and Hindi from class I to VIII may conduct  a   survey to test     reading & writing skills of students of their respective class so that students who lag behind are identified. From reading I mean aloud as well as    silent reading and reading with adequate speed and style. First test should be of loud reading and second of silent reading. I am sure teacher will find such students in each section and class who are unable to read. For loud reading testing- they may be asked to read the excerpts of those chapters which have already been taught by teachers. And for testing writing skill an age appropriate topic may be given to test whether they write correctly or not. This should be carried out under the close supervision of HM/Vice Principal/Principal and student wise observations on the mistakes being committed by them may be recorded which may be very handy during remediation. { Please see Annexure-I and II}

 If an all India survey is carried out to know the reading and writing abilities of students in Kendriya Vidyalayas in Elementary Classes- the results will be startling. I am of the considered opinion that those who can not read with comprehension will always lag behind in studies.

(ii) Separate Section for the Students in class I or where ever Required:

Those who join class I after attending KG classes must be given separate treatment from those who join school directly in class I or those who join Class I at later stage. And there after they must be taught in such a way that over a time of one or two years- they all can be brought at par. In class III – when all achieve MLL in English / Hindi after class II – their mingling can be done. You may agree that these two groups require separate pedagogical techniques. Teaching both groups with same technique will be of great injustice to both. If the school is of single section – then students should be segregated within the class and should be taught with careful planning. A lot of remediation is required at this stage. At present teachers deliver lessons through one-made-fit-all plans. There is a need to devise period wise pedagogical plans on one hand and long term plans on the other.

 If we make our students proficient in languages at primary/elementary level- I am sure- we need not worry about our class X and XII results as they would automatically improve with the passage of time.

(iii) Teaching of Subjects through Medium of Instruction:-

Medium of Instruction in KVS starting from class I is English. In most of the KVs of North and Central India you will find most of the teachers teaching Mathematics , Science and Commerce in higher classes bilingually where Hindi sometimes over shadows English. While teaching Mathematics and Science through English medium, teachers unknowingly teach English which in itself becomes inter-disciplinary.

If students don't get opportunities to listen to English then how can they become proficient in speaking and writing? I agree that bi-lingual method may be appropriate in classes I-IV but in class V onwards Maths / EVS /Science should only be taught through English medium  whereas  Hindi may be used sparingly and that too like a teaching aid only. Students should be motivated to reply only in English. Thus an English speaking environment will be created in each KV.

I have seen some students who hail from North but get admission in South Indian KVs, they acquire sufficient proficiency in English only due to this factor as they get to listen to this language more in South Indian schools as compared to KVs in North and Central India.

(iv)  Remediation and Accountability: -

 If student wise symptoms of their weaknesses are available with the teacher who might start remediation for such students during Morning Assembly/Saturdays . Simultaneously Principal may fix the accountability of teachers by alerting teachers that their performance will be monitored closely and if much students fail to achieve MLL after a specified period of time or by the year end -then teachers will be asked to explain the reasons which may also attract administrative action.

Till today PRTs and TGTs teaching languages know that no-body will ask them the reasons of poor performance of their students and they will easily pass the buck. TGTs will say that students did not learn in Primary Classes and teachers teaching Class V will say that they did not learn when they were in class IV and so on. Some will start blaming the parents as they do not show interest in their children.

(v) Involvement of Parents: -

Parents of all those students who are unable to read and write may be called to school class wise or even section wise depending upon the number of students. Principals / HMs should interact with them and apprise them about the level of  language proficiency of their children. They may also be motivated to take care of their children at home by just asking their wards to read at least one page of Hindi/ English in their presence daily. Even those parents who are unable to read themselves –may ask their wards to read aloud in their presence. Parents should also ensure that their words must attend remediation classes on Saturdays or as and when asked by school. If school expresses the concern for such children, the parents will not only feel happy but also grateful to school.

My experience shows that the parents feel very happy when they come to know that the school is taking keen interest in the academic growth of their wards.

(vi) Reading of Text Books:

 As far as I know that the teachers teaching Maths, Science and Social Science very rarely ask the students to read the text of the lessons silently inside the class. Rather they straight forward come to the topic and start explaining the concepts to students. The students do not get the first hand taste of the text books. All teachers teaching Maths, Science and Social Science should give timed silent reading of the excerpts of the text to their students. Thereafter they should explain the difficult terms and give explanation and demonstrations. Asking one student to stand and read for the whole class is an old and redundant technique. Aloud reading should be practiced in language class rooms with a clear objective of improving speed, pronunciation and accuracy. In lower classes reading in chorus also helps.

(vii) Teaching of Grammar:

Traditionally grammar was taught as a separate entity in language teaching. There was a special focus on parts of speech, tenses, narration and active-passive voice. But now grammar is not taught separately rather it is mingled with the teaching of text books. There are exercises in the text books which are specially designed to teach grammar. Such interventions in the text books must be thoroughly exploited to teach grammar. There is no harm if separate grammar classes are also taken for the slow learners so that they are made aware of the basic sentence structures of English Language. For slow learners the old traditional method of teaching Grammar may also prove useful.

Conclusion:

Whatever reasons and remedies I have tried to mention above may be a tip of the iceberg. The need of the hour is to identify all such students in elementary classes and to make road maps of remediation which need to be closely monitored by Principal and HM of each KV by involving all stakeholders in this pious task.

  

Annexure-I

Format  of Survey to Test  Aloud Reading

CLASS:III/IV/V SECTION: A/B/C/D/E		NAME OF KV: NAME OF PRINCIPAL: NAME OF HM/PRT:
TOTAL NO OF STUDENTS IN CLASS:
TOTAL NO OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE DIFFICULTY IN WRITING

S.No	Name of Student	Whether reads the provided text aloud with adequate speed, correct, pronunciation, intonation within prescribed time limit.	Time Taken	If no, then write your observations about his/her ability to read aloud e.g reads words one by one, does not know about the pauses to be given on signs punctuation, mispronounces the words, speed is slow etc.
1
2

Annexure-II

FORMAT OF SURVEY TO ASSESS WRITING ABILITIES OF STUDENT FROM (III-V)

CLASS:III/IV/V SECTION: A/B/C/D/E		NAME OF KV: NAME OF PRINCIPAL: NAME OF HM/PRT:
TOTAL NO OF STUDENTS IN CLASS:
TOTAL NO OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE DIFFICULTY IN WRITING

S.No	Name of Student	Whether student can express her/ his ideas in simple correct language on a given topic (80-100 words)	Time Taken	if not, write your own observation for e.g commits mistakes in tense formation, incorrect use of capital letters and punctuation marks, poor handwriting defective sentence structures etc.
1
2

NOTE: Topic for writing: (i) “My Family” for Class –III

                                            (ii) “My School” for Class –IV

                                            (iii) “ My Favourite Teacher” for Class-V