How to communicate in English? London does it for Nagaland’s teachers

EMN
Dimapur, March 15

While it is true that not everyone has high IQ although they may have high academic qualifications, communicating in English in Nagaland remains a challenge even to teachers. In a state where jokes about ‘Nagamese teachers’ and ‘Broken English’ teachers in ‘English’ government schools are common, updating skills especially in industrially-relevant communication forms such as English, remains a worthy goal to pursue.
In collaboration with Trinity College of London, the Nagaland Board of School Education conducted the third annual teachers’ training program in English communication skills from March 11 to the 12th. The program was conducted in the NBSE’s office conference hall in Kohima town.
Dr. John Bentley, Academic support specialist from Trinity, and Soma Podder, a member of Trinity’s faculty, were the resource persons. There were 32 participants from 22 institutions affiliated for the program.
The training focused on orienting teachers to prepare students for Trinity College’s Graded Examinations in Spoken English (GESE) as well as on classroom management and ways to integrate communication skills into their classrooms.
The GESE examinations, considered a highly sought-after qualification with international validity accepted into university throughout Europe and the US, has a unique form of assessments, focusing on one-on-one interaction between the examiner and the examinee with regard to language acquisition.
In the last two years, students of Nagaland who took this examination recorded 100% pass percentage. (Inputs from DIPR)