Education for all

Ramesh Nepali had high hopes of securing excellent results in his engineering exams. He had aced all the tests, including Physics and Math. However, his dreams of topping the college roll were crushed by one subject that defeated him, as usual – English. “I received A’s in all other subjects but a C in Communication Technique. English has always been my greatest academic challenge in school and even after that,” he laments. He represents many students in Nepal who attended government schools where all subjects are taught in Nepali. They don’t lack content or quality. But language becomes their biggest problem as they move ahead in their academic years. Mahashram Sharma, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, presents this as the major reason behind the Ministry’s proposal to run the classes in English in all government schools of Nepal within ten years. Since Nepali is not a globally understood language, he believes it is best to equip students with English language from school level itself so they don’t face hardships later on. “Ten years is a long time. We’re positive that we’ll be able to train the teachers adequately. We’ll create an environment where all classes can be conducted in English medium,” he claims. Bijay Gajmer His plans are heartily welcomed by people like Pratima Gautam, a nursing student. She completed her schooling from her hometown in Ramechhap. She blames the Nepali medium education system as the major reason behind language-related difficulties she has been facing post-SLC (School Leaving Certificate) examinations. “If only our teachers had explained the same terminologies of Science in English instead of Nepali, I wouldn’t have had to mug up huge chunks of texts without properly understanding them for the exams,” she says. A Science teacher in a government school in Bhaktapur, Tilak Sashankar presents his views that are in agreement with those of Pratima’s. As a Science teacher, he thinks that it is important for the students to understand the terminologies in English. However, he also emphasizes that students must first understand the content of the book. The best deal in this scenario, according to Sashankar, would be to infuse English into the curriculum and familiarize the terminologies in English while explaining things in Nepali. Content, indeed, is the most important thing when it comes to education and academia. A teacher of Mathematics at a government school in Kathmandu, Balram Paudel does not feel that language makes much difference in Mathematics and Accounts. And the main challenge for a teacher would be to make the students understand the content regardless of the language of communication. “Students should have a good understanding of the concept. Then they can always be eased into a language switch, provided they know what they are studying. Language always comes second to content,” he says. However, it cannot be denied that language is a significant tool when it comes to teaching and learning in a classroom. And our current academia heavily relies on Nepali as a medium of communication in the classrooms. The government may be optimistic about converting all government schools to English medium schools within ten years but language trainers regard this as an almost impossible feat. Janak Panta, Training Coordinator at Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) takes this as one of the greatest challenges in Nepali academia at present. He insists there is a grave scarcity of teachers who are fluent and competent in English inside and outside the Kathmandu Valley. He points out the present-day gloomy situation where instructions are given in Nepali in primary-level textbooks for English teachers. And as a trainer in English, he feels that the overall situation of English is quite poor in Nepal. His views are shared by Dipendra Regmi, English teacher at a government school in Kathmandu. He feels that simply converting the medium of communication into English is not going to improve the state of education in government schools. There has to be a change in the attitude and perception of the teachers, students and guardians altogether. “Our guardians don’t understand that speaking in English isn’t the only way to measure a student’s scholastic capacity. We must improve their language competency but not at the cost of quality and content,” he says. Shashankar, too, claims that every education system runs on the basis of a triangular synchronization between teachers, students and guardians. The satisfaction quotient of the final results is directly proportional to the level of coordination between these three parties. It is not possible for a student to do well merely by depending on what is taught at school. Guidance at home is equally important. But in our context, says Shashankar, most guardians of government school students are not very comfortable with English and would not be of much help to their children if all subjects were to be taught in English. In order to keep up with the rest of the world, competency in English is a crucial factor. At the same time, it is not very wise to compromise with quality to improve language skills. Considering the current state of Nepali government schools across the country, it is safe to say that the challenge of language can be tackled better when plans do not just remain at the policy level and the human resource in the government schools are managed better. younitya@gmail.com Good English and good education are two different things´ What do you think about teaching and learning through the English medium at government schools?  I personally don’t think it’s feasible or desirable. I’m a teacher of English. And I can say from experience that four or five years of strong academic training at the secondary and higher secondary levels is enough to improve English. We have many Master’s-level classes being taught in Nepali. Content-wise, they are pretty good. So I believe we should focus on quality from early on instead of worrying about language skills at the primary and lower secondary levels. Will English increase our competency in the global academic arena? Good English and good education are two different things. There are many countries in the world, like Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea that are heavily dependent on their native tongue and have still made an impactful presence in the global arena. English is very important but content is even more important, and so is retaining our mother tongue. If students understand what’s being taught and develop enough content, I think they can easily communicate it later on. Won’t students face difficulties if they are exposed to English at a later stage? Language is a skill that can be developed later but there can be no compromise with quality at any cost. Gaining proficiency in a language is only a matter of dedication and hard work. I went to a government school and studied in the Nepali medium. But now I’m more comfortable and confident in English. I also teach Nepali to Americans, and within a few months, I see that they are quite fluent in their newly learnt language. So what are your suggestions regarding the means of teaching and learning of the present-day curriculum? We already have many students from government schools failing in Mathematics, Science and English. So we have to be very careful before we plan anything new. I think we should focus more on the content. We’ve trained teachers of government schools. So we should concentrate on better management of this human resource that we already have in order to yield better results in the days to come.
Published on 2014-01-24 13:14:53