 APPENDIX N
INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IN CLASSES
 V AND VI OF LOWER MIDDLE SCHOOLS

The memorandum with regard to this item submitted by the Government of North-West Frontier Province, who suggested the inclusion of the subject in the Board's agenda,is reproduced below :-

"Experience has shown that a boy who has been in a primary school for four and in certain cases for five years, on leaving the school, relapses into illiteracy within a short time and thus a large portion of the time , energy and expenditure devoted to primary education goes to waste. It was with a view to confer permanent literacy on pupils that a school with six classes (the lower middle school was brought into being. Boys who have passed out of a lower middle school generally remain literate all their lives.

English education is extremely popular in the Province and most parents wish their children to be taught English. But an anglo- vernacular middle school is expensive, and for want of funds it has not been possible to meet the wishes of the people to any great extent. As however the conversion of a primary school into a lower middle school does not involve heavy expense, a large number of primary schools have been converted into lower middle schools. Whenever this is done ,there is nearly always a demand for the appointment of an English teacher for the V and VI classes. Such demands are difficult to refuse as the appointment of an English teacher for the V and VI classes enables students at a

small expense to prepare themselves for joining the VII class in an anglo-vernacular middle school. It therefore appears desirable that arrangements should be made for teaching English in all lower middle schools. At present when a teacher is employed for teaching English to the students of V and VI classes in vernacular lower middle schools he is generally a matriculate and is paid Rs. 20 per mensem. The standard of his teaching is not very high and students who join the VII class in an anglo-vernacular school after studying in the V and VI classes in a lower middle school are at a disadvantage. Unfortunately the type of student who studies in the V and VI classes in a lower middle schools is often so poor that he cannot afford to pay high fees. The fees in these schools are only a few annas per mensem. In a number of cases parents do not like paying this much even for their children's education. The best course therefore appears to be that all lower middle schools should be provided with a school master of good educational qualifications to teach English. To enable this to be done it would be necessary to appoint a J.A.V. teacher to all lower middle schools in the grade of Rs. 70-3-100. The preseng of this teacher in a school will enable those students who want to study English to receive the same type of education that they would be getting in an anglo- vernacular middle school it is further suggested that such students should pay fees at the rate prevailing in anglo-vernacular middle schools. By introducing this system we shall have the advantage of making English education of the standard of anglo-vernacular middle school available to students of lower middle schools and at the same time keep the rate of fees of lower middle schools undisturbed. Only those students of lower middle schools who want to study English will be required to pay higher fees. Another advantage would be that the flow of students from lower vernacular middle schools into vernacular middle schools will not be seriously affected."

2. A lower middle school is a vernacular school containing six classes. namely four primary classes and classes V and VI of the middle department; such schools are generally in existence in the Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province. The headmaster is generally a senior vernacular trained teacher in the grade of Rs. 40-2-90. The position with regard to the teaching of English in vernacular schools in the various provinces is as follows:-

English is taught as an optional subject in the vernacular schools of Asaam, Bengal, Bihar, Central Provinces and Berar, North Orissa and the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and United Provinces 'special classes' are attached to certain Anglo-vernacular schools, and those boys who have passed the Vernacular Final Examination and desire to enter an Anglo-Vernacular school are required to spend two years in these classes. mainly in the study of English, before proceeding to class VII in the United Provinces and class IX in the Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province.

3. The question of introducing the study of English in the lower secondary classes (V to VIII) generally was considered by Messrs. Abbott and Wood in their Report on Vocational Education in India. "Many parents", it is stated in the Report "demand it (the study of English) thus early because of the social and economic value of a knowledge of the language which is current in the higher ranges of government service and business. The schools must serve public needs, and the study of English, at least as an optional subject, may have to be included in the curriculum of some of the lower secondary schools where there is a public demand for it. We must however protest against an excess of language teaching at this early stage. An examination of the time tables for boys between say 10 and 14, who are learning English, in the provinces which we visited, reveals the fact that in many schools more than half the total number of teaching periods of the week are devoted to linguistic studies. In our view no social or economic consideration can justify such a misuse of educational opportunity.

"Some of the best schools we have seen in India are those which eschewing the teaching of English, base their instruction and their activities on the environment of the children and on the natural and social phenomena with which they are familiar."

APPENDIX N INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH IN CLASSES V AND VI OF LOWER MIDDLE SCHOOLS