Teachers in West Bengal have largely welcomed the State’s new education policy announced last week, calling it more scientific — than the Centre’s proposals — and far-sighted.
“West Bengal has deviated from the NEP (National Education Policy) in terms of structure of the curriculum at the school level and also in the mode of delivery of the same, as in the language to be used while teaching. While NEP suggests a 5+3+3+4 structure from pre-primary to Class 12, the State Government has decided to stick to the current 5+4+2+2 structure. I feel it is a more scientific model, based on children’s learning abilities as documented by learning theorists like Piaget, and a time-tested one as compared to the one proposed by the Centre,” Krishnakoli Ray, headmistress of the Dhakuria Sree Ramakrishna Vidyapith for Girls in Kolkata, said.
“Coming to the medium of instruction, though children supposedly learn better if they are taught in their mother tongue, we should not underestimate the need to learn other languages, especially English, if we are to keep pace with the world. From my experience of working with children for the last 20 years, I can vouch for the fact that children have an uncanny ability to pick up languages, and it would be a shame to restrict them with their mother tongue till a certain age. A three-language formula works better in my opinion, but the State language should be compulsorily taught in all schools,” Ms. Ray said.
