Education dept marks 65 schools in state for offering English medium facilities

Kolkata: The state Education department has identified as many as 65 schools in the state which will be having facilities of English medium. However, the Bengali medium will also continue to exist side-by-side in these schools.

"We have plans to introduce 100 English medium schools. The new schools that will be set up will have facilities for English medium right from pre-primary to higher secondary level, while the 65 schools which have been identified will have English medium facilities from Class V," state Education minister Partha Chatterjee said, adding that to avoid any sort of confusion, the Bengali medium will exist side-by-side as well.

The department has already identified teachers who have a background of schooling in English medium, for teaching in these schools. "If we need more teachers then they will be hired through proper procedure," a senior official of the School Education department said.

The department hopes that the 65 schools will start functioning with English medium facilities from January 2019. "Many students cannot study in private English medium schools because of financial constraints. Most of these schools charge a large amount as tuition fees, which the parents of the students fail to afford. Our schools will offer quality education at a low cost," the official added.

The Left Front government in 1982 had decided to do away with English in the primary level. This had resulted in sharp decline of students in government schools as students opted for private English medium schools, which teach English right from the pre-primary level.

Educationists have said repeatedly that engineering students from the state have not been getting lucrative jobs because of their poor command over English.