Tribal students `dance' to English tune

Tribal students `dance' to English tune
RAKSHIT SONAWANE

MUNDHEGAON (NASHIK), NOV 20: Ramchandra Popat Pawar is a topper in Marathi with 91 per cent marks in all his subjects in the Class IV exam but is having a tough time trying to fulfil Tribal Development Minister Madhukar Pichad's dream of taking up a competitive examination in English and become engineers, doctors or even astronauts.

Now Ramchandra, worries over how he will tackle all the subjects in English for the next examination as he barely knows the alphabet in the language.

Continuing with its project of changing the medium of instruction to English in schools, the Maharashtra Government has started yet another model ashram school, changing the medium of 60 tribal students of Class V from Marathi to English abruptly in the middle of the academic year.

Pichad and his deputy Prakash Awade, while inaugurating the Tribal Public School, announced that four such schools would be opened in the State this year and five more during the next year. The schools, incidentally are funded by the Centre and the entire project cost is estimated to cost Rs 4 crore.

The change in the medium of instruction in the middle of the academic year has spread anxiety among the students, who were transported from their respective ashram schools in Nashik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Dhule and Jalgaon districts, to their new school on Sunday. The students are yet to be provided with either uniforms or their new English textbooks. Ramchandra says English was introduced as a subject in his previous school only five months ago, while all other subjects were still taught in Marathi.

Another student, Vilas Bhaskar Chaudhary from Surgana, echoed the same sentiments. He said the change in the medium, and that too abruptly, would be difficult, but wanted to make a go for it.

The new school's headmaster, B G Gote, agrees that the change of medium in the middle of the academic year would pose a problem to students who had never learnt the language. He points out that though the medium would be English, the teachers would have to be bilingual (English and Marathi) for a couple of months to enable the students to understand the language and the subjects.

But Gote is confident as the students selected for the new school are "brilliant" and special English classes will be conducted for them during the summer holidays to acquaint them with the language. Gote hoped that the school uniforms and books would be distributed to the students within a few days. The school currently has two teachers and one class (Class V). Class VI will begin in the next academic year.

The State Government intends to start similar schools in Thane, Amravati and Nagpur this year. To its credit, the State had introduced English in the current academic year right from Class I in schools, including ashram schools. But earlier, English used to be introduced as a subject from Class V, while the medium continued to be Marathi.

But Pichad says the passing percentage of tribal ashram schools at the SSC level had gone up from about 40 per cent to about 60 per cent over the past five years. He points out there was enough talent and intelligence among tribals students, but they had been denied the opportunity. He says the scheme of English medium public schools had been pending with the previous Shiv Sena-BJP government for years, but no decision was taken. This was because the then government could not decide whether such schools should be run by the government or by private institutions.

Pichad claims such schools will be better than the "Navodaya" schools run by the Centre. He laments that the plight of the tribals in the State had not improved despite Rs 3,153 crore being spent on tribal welfare schemes since 1995, adding that a high-power team led by him was trying to find out where all the money went.

His deputy Awade says the scrutiny of 183 new ashram schools permitted by the Sena-BJP government had revealed that some institutions had got permission without even applying for it.