A few years ago, the principal of Bigyan Prabha Lower Secondary School at Ikudol in remote Lalitpur decided to switch the medium of teaching at the primary level from Nepali to English in an effort to improve language skills of his students. But after two years, he gave up. The reason: the medium of instruction in lower-secondary classes is Nepali.

“When the students reached Grade 6, we realised that neither their English nor their Nepali was up to the standard,” says the principal, Jitman Lama.

With insufficient number of teachers proficient in English at the lower-secondary level, Lama had to choose whether his students should have better English, Nepali or poor at both. He chose the second and reverted to being a Nepali-medium school.

No exact figure on how many of the roughly 29,000 public schools currently use English as its medium of instructions exists, but the number is estimated to be growing. A lot of public schools want to be able to teach in English to stem the flow of students to private English-medium schools.

As most students from private schools have successfully graduated School Leaving Certificate exams, many parents and teachers have come to equate English-medium teaching with quality education, forcing public schools nationwide to switch their primary mode of instructions.

“We all know why public schools have difficulty retaining students,” says Padam Pandey, treasurer at the Teachers Union. “Parents want their children to learn English. But instead of helping public schools transition into English-medium schools, the government stresses on education in mother tongues.”

Education expert Vishnu Karki finds Pandey and public schools such as Bigyan Prabha misguided. He rues this undue emphasis on one language as a medium of instruction. “Language is just one skill, which is used to learn other skills. Unfortunately, parents and teachers have forgotten that,” says Karki. “Private schools are not better because they teach in English. Neither do all private schools provide quality education.”  

Education experts also agree that enrolment in private schools does not necessarily mean better English. A student can sharpen her English-language skills just as well at a Nepali-medium public school.

“Learning a new language is easy,” says Vidya Nath Koirala, another education expert. “The problem is we focus heavily on language immersion and not on language bridges. Instead of asking a student to learn English by ignoring Nepali, ask her how many English alphabets she can see in a Nepali syllable and you will see how easy English feels.”

Still, undeterred by challenges faced by Lama and questions posed by education experts, preparations to start teaching grade one in English from the upcoming fiscal year are under way at Syauri Bhume Primary School at Ikudol.

According to the principal, Tulasi Prasad Sanjel, textbooks in English are all in and he is assured that his students, when they reach grade six, will not encounter

challenges faced by Lama’s students. Once students graduate fifth grade, Sanjel says, they will study in Kali Devi Secondary School at Bukhel in Lalitpur, where secondary-level classes are also run in English. 

source: the kathmandu post,19 Oct 2013