Forty-three-year-old Lydia George walks in with a confident gait and a smile. Years after working as a teacher in an anganwadi school in Dharavi, Lydia is in for something new. Despite spending years in teaching profession, Lydia felt she lacked something. She didn’t know the lingua franca of the world— English. Today, after undergoing tutor’s training in English for a month, Lydia is happy. “I finally manage to speak the global language,” she beams.

Keeping in mind, the growing need of teaching anganwadi and balwadi teachers the English language, LIFE trust, an NGO working with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) aims at providing creative and innovative learning techniques to teachers of as many as 49 civic schools. The English learning programme for teachers of anganwadis is a two-month pilot project. It has inked a pact with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to teach English to as many as 950 teachers in the anganwadis of Dharavi. “All the anganwadi teachers have passed standard 10 and 12. This means they are proficient in primary education. Some of them have passed even BA. However, the lack of knowledge in the English always deterred them in all their endeavors. Hence, we thought of starting this project,” said project manager, Sonam Chawla. The pilot project was launched early this month. Each classroom comprises 25 students each.

The trust has come up with English DVDs. A DVD includes 2D animation plays, cartoons and self introduction plays to teach conversational English. “Our main aim is to teach them spoken English and written English as of now. We will improvise the syllabus as and when we progress,” said Chawla. The method is far from easy. The students are taught how to make simple conversations using hypothetical situation, and mostly it is their domestic, routine work that forms the basis.

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