A government-sponsored Bengali-medium school in Santoshpur has been training its students to communicate in English which would help them in the future.

Communicative English classes are held twice weekly for Classes V to IX and XI at Santoshpur Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyapith.

The classes started last March, said the schools’ headmistress.

To make learning fun and engaging, the school organised a winter carnival where children played games and watched movies.

“We want our girls to be at par with others, so they need to communicate well in English. Not knowing the language well enough to speak or comprehend it can sometimes be a disadvantage,” said Sarbani Sen, the school’s headmistress.

Sen said she had seen cases where students from her school went to another state to pursue a course and suffered a setback because they could not properly communicate in English.

“I have also seen instances where my girls, despite having a thorough knowledge of a subject, faltered during the presentation because of poor communication skills in English,” she said.

The school started an English-medium section in the 2024 academic session.

“Those admitted in English-medium section will gradually pick up the skill as they move up. We also have to think about the others in the Bengali medium section. Thus the idea to start the English speaking programme came to us,” said Sen.

The girls receive almost no help at home.

“Naturally, it is for the school to create opportunities for them,” said a teacher.

During the winter carnival from December 16 to 24, learning was taken outside the classrooms

“We played a game where I wrote sentences with errors and the students had to correct them,” said Roshni Majumdar, academic head of communicative English
of the organisation engaged by the school to take the classes.

“They still can understand an Indian speaking in English. But it is difficult for them when someone is speaking with an American accent,” said Majumdar.

“It is important that they speak proper English. They must understand that they cannot use many words they usually use while speaking to friends compared to while they speak to a teacher or in an office,” said Majumdar.