Mumbai: Vernacular school students will now study Mathematics and Science in English unlike in the past where both subjects were taught in the school’s medium. The plan will be implemented in standard one of all civic vernacular schools this year, and gradually, it will cover all classes till standard X in an ascending order i.e. standard two in 2018, standard three in 2019, and so on. This is part of the BMC’s “bilingual schools” initiative to help students cope with the language barrier after standard X.
Towards this, the BMC has started training its vernacular school teachers. Around 10,000 teachers of 732 civic-run schools are currently being trained by the British Council Academy at four training centres located in Borivali, Byculla, Ghatkopar and Chembur. Mahesh Palkar, education officer of BMC, said, “Learning subjects like Maths and Science is difficult in regional languages. Instead, if the subjects were in English, it would be easier to understand them. Maths and Science are very different from Geography, History etc. as they are theory-based. Hence, to help students along with enhancing their English language, we have initiated such a thing.”
While Maths and Science will be taught in the English language, other subjects will be taught in the schools’ first language. There are over 1,048 civic-run schools having seven different mediums including Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Furthermore, BMC has decided to conduct classes for these subjects in a manner where students can understand things better. Prakash Charate, deputy education officer, said, “They will learn their lessons in an animated manner instead of the traditional chalk-and-board format. This will entertain them as well as give them knowledge of the subject.”
Currently, there are over 1,048 civic-run schools with seven different mediums including Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tami, Telugu and Kannada.
