How difficult is English language? If you ask the students of private schools, they will say not very hard; students from public schools will give the different answer. English, a compulsory subject for School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination has ended thousands of dreams of studying in campuses. Government has time and again introduced a few ideas and changed curriculum to make sure much more find the subject easier. I was a monitor of English Speaking and Listening Test that carries 20 marks in SLC today and all that was proved once again.
Here are two of my experiences (today’s) with ‘private students’ (those who appear in SLC as self-studied):
I was telling the students the rules of the exam. I told them twice I would play the cassette ‘three times – first two for solving two questions and last one for revision’. “Should I start now?” I asked them. One of the students raised his hand and asked me if he could put a question to me. I said yes.
“Sir, hamila kati patak thyo sunna pauchhau?” (Sir, how many times we get to hear that?) Well, with that I started talking to them in Nepali (it’s a different story that the checking squad from District Education Office caught me talking Nepali and asked me to speak in English).
The first question in the listening exam carries 3 marks and is three True/False statements. Students have to either write T or F. One of the students told me an idea of getting at least one mark from it. “Sir, tin otai ma T athawa F lekhi diyo bhane one ta pakka bhayena?” (Sir, if I write T or F on all three, wouldn’t I get at least one?)
He wrote T for all without even listening to the cassette. (It’s again a different story that that was all correct.)
The Oral Test was introduced a few years ago primarily because to enable student to understand and respond at least to simple questions and conversation (and also to increase of number of students passing the examination).
I was not in the speaking test but the friends who were on it said some of them don’t even spoke a sentence in English!
I don’t know how things can be improved but there is a person whom I always felt sorry for. He is a neighbor of mine – am owner of a small shop. He was brilliant in mathematics. When I saw his mark sheets of graduate and post-graduate levels, I was amazed to see marks ranging in 80s and 90s in mathematics but he had never passed English (a compulsory subject) in his first attempt. It always took him three to five times and always got pass marks.
Knowing English is very important but I always felt that it should not be a compulsory subject in higher studies.
