The School Education Department will include a separate period for TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in order to upscale the English-speaking skills of students in government schools.
“A separate exam (English Paper-II) will be conducted in formative and summative tests,” said Praveen Prakash, Principal Secretary, School Education Department. He said the classes, however, would be confined to listening and speaking skills, as vocabulary, grammar and comprehension topics are already included in the regular English course.
He said students should be encouraged to use the Byju’s app, as the idea was to strengthen their knowledge base in science, social science and mathematics through this partnership with the app designer.
Mr. Praveen Prakash asked the Commissioner, School Education and Director, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to issue formal orders in this regard.
It may be noted that the State government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) to impart training in English-speaking skills to students of State-run schools.
As part of a five-year initiative, the ETS will evaluate and certify the English language proficiency of students ranging from Class III to X across all government schools through its TOEFL Young Students Series assessments.
Schools will leverage TOEFL Primary and TOEFL Junior Standard Tests to assess the English reading and listening skills of students in Class III through V and Class VI through IX respectively, while TOEFL Junior Speaking Test will assess the English-speaking skills of Class X students.
Enrolment in open schools
The Principal Secretary also directed District Collectors and District Educational Officers (DEOs) to focus on enrolment of students who failed in Classes X and XII in open schools and skill development centres simultaneously. He said it was imperative that an integrated approach be followed at the district-level.
He wanted the student info database to be accurate and directed the officials concerned to remove discrepancies, if any.
