Our Correspondent
Kohima | July 4
If everything goes well, Nagaland would become the first state in India to get the method of phonetics to all government schools.
“Phonetics is an art and skill. We need to learn it,” said Wonthungo Tsopoe, additional director (HoD), Directorate of School Education (DoSE), adding that it would provide opportunity to Naga youth to serve abroad.
Stating that there is scarcity of industry or other avenues in the state, Tsopoe said “But once we are well trained in phonetics, our services can be utilized beyond our state, venturing out to other countries too.”
Stating that countries like Korea, China and other South East Asian countries are in huge demand of English teachers, he said there is big prospect for the state in this respect.
Addressing the inaugural function of a three-day ‘Phonetics training’ for government teachers of Kohima and Dimapur districts here this morning, Tsopoe subscribed such platform as “important” for many to enter into a new generation in line with teaching.
He said that English is a medium of communication “but we are lagging behind in our pronunciation.” Whenever a person from a particular tribe speaks English we come to know which tribe s/he belongs to because of the way they speak, he noted.
“As a teacher we need to improve and learn a lot,” he said, adding that the state’s DoSE in collaboration with Jolly Phonics, UK has been conducting seminars and workshops to explore all possible means to equip teachers with the basics of phonetics.
“As a teacher, we need to learn many things. Our normal academic qualification alone is not sufficient to transmit knowledge,” he said, stressing on the need to disseminate the right knowledge to the people and children.
Shainaz Jussa, Principal & MD Phonickids, Mumbai (Jolly Phonics UK) said, “It is my dream to take phonetics method to various parts of the country.” “We want to take this programme to all government schools especially in Nagaland so that each child is able to read well, speak well, understand the language well and pronounce the word well,” said Jussa.
“I want Nagaland to be the first state in India to get this (Phonetics) method to all the government schools,” she said. She said that Jolly Phonics is a world leader in the literary programme of synthetic phonics. ‘Synthetic phonics’ is a method of teaching reading which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blend these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.
Altogether, 70 teachers are taking part in this training programme. It will go on till July 6.
