When the going gets tough, the tough gets going

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going

Monday, December 5, 2011

As the year of 2011 is drawing to a close it is appropriate to write a note on what the English Department of the Matugama Education Zone has been doing in order to advance the standard of English of the student population of the Zone and the personality development and professional build up of the English teachers during the course of this year. Annual School English Development ProgrammeIt has been the practice since 2008 to send an annual English programme to every school to be implemented in order to raise the level of English in schools. On January 01st itself 2011 programme which included holding an English week, formation of school clubs, holding an awards day etc. was posted to every school in the zone. We are happy to note that it was implemented to a large extent by almost all the schools.
Results ImprovementIn the month of February the English teachers were summoned to the Zonal Education Office and emphasized the need of improving English language results by 10% in 2011. The teachers were given necessary guidelines and asked to work harder to achieve the target.
On October 05th, 06th and 12th three support seminars were conducted for grade 11 students in 21 centres to help them get more marks for English language question papers at the O/L examination. 59 English teachers and the ISAs - English conducted the seminars for which over 2000 students attended.
In addition to the above programme four model question papers were sent to schools to prepare the students for the examination.
Zonal Language Training Center (ZLTC)Opening of the ZLTC on February 11th was yet another achievement of the English Department of the zone. The centre, equipped with the state of the art facilities was opened by the Zonal Director of Education, Additional Zonal Director of Education and the other Directors of Education. This facility was used to conduct for teachers and students upto the sudden closure of the centre.
Website of the Zonal English DepartmentZonal English Department launched its blog on the same day the ZLTC was declared open. It was ceremonially launched by Mr. Keerthi Kariyawasam, Member of Western Provincial Council. The blog was maintained throughout the year disseminating information to teachers handling traffic of around 4000 page views. The aim of this endeavour was to broaden the horizons of the English language teaching learning process of the zone through the use of information and communication technology.
Bilingual Education Programme In order to accelerate the bilingual education programme, three workshops were conducted for the teachers on February 28, April 29th and 30th. While the February programme was conducted at Ananda Sastralaya National School, the next two day workshop was held at the ZLTC, in order to train the teachers to teach science, mathematics and citizenship education to grade 6 students. Seventeen schools of the Zone are now conducting lessons to Grade 6 students. Two more schools will follow suit from 2012.
English Language WeekAlmost every school in the Zone held the English language week from February 21 to 25. Adhering to the instructions given by us the morning assembly was conducted in English on all five days of the week. Language competitions were held for the students from Grade 3 to Grade 13. In addition to that, literary associations, English speaking clubs were formed during the week.
It was heartening to hear from all the authorities who had visited the schools during this week that the English week had been successfully held .
90-hour English Course for Bilingual TeachersThe 90-hour English course for Bilingual Teachers for which 25 teachers participated, held at St. Mary’s College on Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. commenced on May 05th and was successfully completed on November 21st. The focus of the course was mainly to develop the English speaking skills of the participants.
Basic English Course for Slow Learners in Grade 9A five day basic English course was conducted at the ZLTC for the Grade 9 slow learners from February to October 2011 for which 210 students from 15 schools participated in the course enthusiastically. The course was popular among the participants as state of the art facilities were used as teaching aids. The aim of the project was to make English an easy subject for the students who had received less than 40 marks in English at the school term tests. Mr. L.A.P. Jayasinghe conducted the programme.
Singing Workshop All the teachers in the Zone were at a loss when they had to prepare the students for the Zonal group singing competition as there were not a single western music teacher to help them. As a measure to meet this urgent demand we invited Mrs. Kanthi Priyadarshani, the Western Music Drector of the Colombo Education Zone to conduct a one day workshop for the English teachers of the Zone. She conducted a workshop on singing on June 3rd at Ananda Sastralaya national school, which immensely helped the teachers in training their students for the Zonal group singing competition.
Zonal English Language, Drama and Group Singing CompetitionsOn May 21st, 28th and June 11th the language competitions were held at St. Mary’s College while drama and group singing competitions were held at Ananda Satralaya on July 09th. More than 5000 students participated in all the competitions. It was due to the support given by the teachers that we were able to conduct the competitions successfully.
Workshop for A/L studentsUnsatisfactory results of General English subject was a major concern for all those in the English department of the Zone. It was known to many that A.L students’ priority is not General English, but the main subjects they learn in schools and elsewhere. However, we believed that it was our responsibility to encourage them to get higher marks for the subject. We organized a one day workshop for them at the public auditorium on July 08th for which more than 300 students including several Buddhist priests participated. Three foreign university students also took part as resource persons in the workshop
English Camps for English Teachers
There were requests from the teachers themselves to conduct subject knowledge enhancement programme for the teachers of English. To meet their request, we organized two, 2-day English camps at Panthiya Maha Vidyalaya during the August vacation. The first camp was held on August 8th and 9th and on August 15th and 16th the second English camp was held there. The areas encompassed in the programme were singing, English language, English literature, writing project proposals, how to use internet to improve English and how to conduct interviews. The following foreign university students who had arrived in Sri Lanka through AEISEC, an organization of university students in 112 countries, were interviewed by the teachers. They were Ms. Fan Sitting (Bess) from China, Ms. Xu Si (Maxxie) from China, Mr. Thalhar Waheed from Pakistan, Ms. Han Trinh from Vietnam, Ms. Hana Zemkova from Slovakia, Ms. Tina Herzbach from Germany and Julia Svandova from Slovakia.
The singing session was conducted by the Western Music Director of the Colombo Education Zone while the other resource persons were Mr. L.A.P. Jayasighe, the English ISAs and myself.
Here is one of the comments made by a participant in one of the camps.
"The tradititional way of conducting seminars and workshops has been revolutionary changed by this new innovatively organized camps. I am sure teachers will participate in this kind of workshops/ camps with delight and enthusiasm in future, The teachers must be enlightened on the use of new technology, as language teaching and learning must go hand in hand with the advancement of science. "M.D. Upali Thilakarathna – C.W.W. Kannangara M.M.V.
Spoken English TestWell Before the ‘English as a Life Skill’ programme came into operation, we had initiated a road map to improve the English speaking skills of the students in the Zone. The very first step was taken in 2008 by allowing students from Grade 3 to 5 to participate in the Zonal prepared speech competition which was limited to the students from Grade 6 upwards until then. The second step was adding picture description, announcing and news reading as Zonal competitions from 2009.
The third step was conducting a Spoken English test for Grade 10 students and the first Spoken English Test was held in 2010 and certificates were awarded to the deserved. The Spoken English Test in 2011 was held at eight centers on October 30th. We understand that the only education zone in the country which has held a spoken English test is Matugama.
Evaluation of English TeachersWe were well aware that teachers should be evaluated, appreciated and rewarded n order to motivate them to enhance productivity of the teaching leaning process. To achieve this objective, we launched a two pronged project in this regard and our ISAs visited all the schools in the Zone and evaluated their performance in classroom teaching and involvement in co-curricular activities by means of 20 criteria. The teachers who scored high marks in the evaluation process will be awarded Certificates of Appreciation on the Zonal Awards Day.
Foreign Volunteer TeachersAnother innovative project initiated by us was receiving the service of foreign university students to teach English in some schools in the Zone. We believe that one of the best ways to teach spoken English is creating an environment where the use of English language is esential. The students of Saranathissa K.V, Ananda Sastralaya national school, St. Mary’s College, Kamburawala M.V., Bopitiya K.V., Hedigalla K.V and Udugama K.V. were able to improve their speaking skills rapidly thanks to the services provided by these foreign students. The university students from China, Taiwan, Germany and Pakistan taught English in schools for two and half months from time to time. We understand some students are still in touch with them over Skype, telephone and through email.
Educational DVDs to SchoolAt present, steps are being taken to provide educational DVDs with funds provided by Mr. Chandrabanu Adikaram, honourable Member of Western Provincial Council. These DVDs, I have no dout, will serve the recipient schools as a catalyst for creating interest in English.
State of the Art Technology for 14 SchoolsFourteeen schools nominated by us will be provided with the state of the art facilities under the Presidential Intiative ‘English as a Life Skill’ programme to develop activity rooms. Ten other schools will share these facilities with neighbouring schools to teach English in a creative way. The Zonal English Department also will be equipped with the state of the art facilities under the same programme.
Zonal English Awards DayThe Zonal English Awards Day which is to be held on December 06th itself was a challenge to us as everybody was engaged in other urgent activities. Writing more than 1000 certificates for the students and teachers was an enormous task. However, we are sure that we will be able to overcome all these difficulties and hold the awards day successfully.
ConclusionIndeed the year 2011 has been such a challenging year to us that we had to run against the time in order to complete the projects in due time. Yet we were able to surmount all the challenges thanks to the unity, solidarity, corporation and above all the unfettered enthusiasm of everybody in the English Department who were yearning for a paradigm shift in the education of the Zone and indeed due to the overwhelming support given to us by the majority of the English teachers.
P.B. RanaweerageADE -English