The PML-N government is all out to transform the province's school education scene in a bid to turn it into “English medium Punjab” without saying it in so many words and avoiding sloganeering as was the case of Chaudhrys' “Parha Likkha Punjab.”

The Punjab school education department is preparing to declare some 17,000 schools in the province as “English medium” form the next academic session beginning from April 1 this year. The medium of instruction in the remaining over 44,000 schools will be changed from April 1, 2011.

For the next academic session, the Punjab government will be publishing textbooks in English as well as Urdu for their free-of-cost provision to some 13 million children studying in public sector schools of the province.

In order to achieve this objective, the department has launched an ambitious programme of imparting 'spoken English' skills to all schoolteachers.

The department held a six-day spoken English course for a large number of teachers at Directorate of Staff Development (DSD) and these “master trainers” were now imparting 12-day training to schoolteachers in their own as well as the nearby schools.

This exercise has drawn strong criticism from the teachers' community mainly on two counts; they find spoken English training “meaningless” and have objections to the timing of the course.

The teachers associations organised demonstrations to protest the quality and timing of the training and were planning to hold a “march” from Masjid-i-Shuhada to the Chief Minister's Secretariat coming Friday.

Objecting to the timing of the training, the teachers argue that it is the peak season in schools as the annual examinations are approaching. During January and February every year the school heads go for extra coaching for their students by holding 'zero periods' as well as extra classes after school hours. They say the education department has further slashed school hours changing the timings from earlier 8.30am-2.30pm to 8.15am to 12.30pm. The training of all schoolteachers begins at 1pm and continues till 4pm. The teachers' associations believe that the right time to hold the training session was either the first two weeks of April or during the summer vacation.

Teachers also find the training too short, arguing that no one can learn to speak English in six or 12 days.

A teacher, who received six-day training at DSD, says “I asked my UK-returned trainer whether a person can learn to speak English in six days. The trainer had no answer.”

Another teacher said the trainer asked them to keep on speaking English in their classes regardless of its form or quality. He contested that if a teacher would speak wrong English, none of his student would ever be able to speak it correctly.

Moreover, the teachers who received six-day training would be conducting 12-day course to impart spoken English skills to the “unwilling participants” who even resented longer stay in schools, he said.

School education Secretary Aslam Kamboh says the department has some resource constraints and cannot afford to invite all teachers to a six day course and offer them TA/DA, besides refreshments. Holding such a course for all 350,000 teachers in the province would cost around Rs6 billion to Rs8 billion, which was not feasible given the resources.

The department, instead, devised a low-cost model of imparting six-day training to English and science teachers and then asking them to impart spoken English skills to their colleagues at a cluster centre, he said.

Kamboh said the English and science teachers had graduate and postgraduate qualifications, adding “Speaking English is not a matter of training but willingness to speak.” He also said that those expressing their dissatisfaction over the training showed that they were eager learners but could not get quality training.

He said the 17,000 schools, being declared English medium from April 1, had 50 per cent of the total enrolment. He said the government would this year print English as well as Urdu textbooks to cater to the needs of the students studying in schools which offered different mediums of instruction.

*****

The Kinnaird College Media Society last week organised its annual tutorial on “Trends of TV Drama in Pakistan”.

The panelists comprising actress Savera Nadeem, model and TV anchor Ayesha Sana, writer Husain Shad and Affan Waheed discussed how the drama industry flourished, its drawbacks, phases it passed through and why it was inclined to follow foreign trends.

Ms Sana said there was more amalgamation of cinematic trends and TV plays that caused decline of film industry and brought many actors to small screen. Similarly, she said, the technical people were also joining the TV industry in large numbers.

Mr Shad said the drama should reflect the present condition, culture and characters from society instead of following others blindly.

Ms Nadeem said drama had flourished and still high quality plays were being produced in Pakistan with good script and commendable direction. “Kinnaird had been the first institution, where I started learning and participating in dramas,” she added.

KC media studies department head Shazia Saeed said more and more plays were being based on the scripts adapted from novels as if there was a dearth of original scripts in the country. “Instead of focusing on the negative side and criticising soap culture, we should not forget the positive aspects of the industry and the talent it has,” she added.

*****

The LUMS Entrepreneurial Society (LES) last week organised a two-day Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs Summit (YLES) to provide students with a chance to display their leadership skills and to use their entrepreneurial energies.

During the weeklong event, students interacted with business leaders and successful entrepreneurs to learn developing marketing strategies, devising business ideas and often forging career-oriented associations.

With its “Sustainopreneurship” agenda, the YLES 2010 began with the Social Enterprise Challenge that provided delegates a platform to come up with innovative solutions to pressing issues of ecological, economic and social sustainability through entrepreneurial ventures.

The YLES second day featured a seven-hour long workshop titled “Networkathon - Networking for a Change”. The workshop included activities that focused on team building while employing the concept of “Sustainopreneruship”.

Later, over 50 leadership facilitators from LUMS conducted “ice-breaking” activities involving the students to ease their nerves and to facilitate the team-building process. This was followed by an innovative lunch activity that was aimed at teaching the delegates the art of deal making and how to buy and sell products.

The workshop did not end there. The used-up and leftover material from the earlier activities was recycled and repurposed to fashion various innovative products. This activity afforded the delegates a hands-on experience with “Sustainopreneurship”.

The 'Networkathon' workshop provided the delegates with an opportunity to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and to mingle with students from diverse backgrounds.

*****

THREE former students of Punjab University's English Language and Literature Department - Parvez Masud, Naveed Riaz and Shaista Sirajuddin - last week inaugurated the Prof Sirajuddin Library at the department. Faculty members and students recited poetry on the occasion. — (mansoormalik173@hotmail.com)