Karnataka plans 180-hour spoken English classes in government schools starting this year: Report

According to the Times of India, Karnataka's Department of School Education and Literacy plans to introduce specialized spoken English programs for government school pupils in the 2018 academic year. This follows a slow rollout last year. The previous plan, published in 2023, planned to hold spoken English courses on weekends in select government schools. Although master trainers had been educated by the Regional Institute of English, the program was never implemented due to poor implementation and a lack of follow-through, the study stated.

This time, the department is using a more systematic approach. The story went on to say that officials are considering 180 hours of spoken English teaching every school year. Approximately 1,000 schools, including Karnataka Public Schools, would be chosen based on student population. To aid execution, the government intends to recruit guest teachers expressly for this initiative.

Teachers will be encouraged to develop classroom scenarios that need active student engagement. The spoken English program will also be supplemented with 'Ek Step', an AI-powered digital learning tool revealed in the state budget that aims to make language acquisition more interactive and tech-friendly.