Mission Proficiency: Level (English) Up gets going for govt students
As part of the scheme, 10,546 graduate teachers underwent online training, which will help them train the students using digital resources.
School education department
CHENNAI: To improve English language proficiency among government school students, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department has implemented a 'Level Up' programme for students of classes 6 to 8. Also, every month, teachers are given weekly targets in each skill – reading, writing and speaking – to help students excel.
As part of the scheme, 10,546 graduate teachers underwent online training, which will help them train the students using digital resources.
"For the Level Up programme, the set of goals and activities for June has been completed. We will inspect schools to ensure that the programme is implemented well and the goals are met," said a department official.
The targets have been listed for every week in July under the skills like listening, reading, writing and speaking. "Each week, the target is slightly enhanced so that students can grasp the concepts and feel at ease learning the language," said a Chennai government school teacher.
For instance, for classes 6, 7 and 8, students in the first week are taught to practice writing the lower case letters, followed by writing in upper case letters in the second and third weeks for all three classes. In the fourth week, however, students are moved to writing simple words using upper and lower case letters.
And, to achieve fluency in reading, the students of all three classes undergo the process of identifying alphabets, reading words, reading short sentences/paragraphs, and then reading books and retelling stories.
Under the skills of listening and speaking, students are paired up to perform skits, where the interaction is solely based on English. Furthermore, students are also involved in activities like verbal board games, summarising news, listening to weather forecasts and commercials, interviewing a friend and role play listening.
Speaking on the significance of this programme, a higher secondary English government teacher noted, "Students who have trouble with the English language face tough times during collegiate education. Students reach out to us claiming they are finding it difficult to comprehend concepts as they are in English. Hence, such a programme is beneficial in the long run."
