Education minister PK Shahi addresses the programme organised by British Council at a hotel in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Tongue-tied and inhibited then, freely expressing themselves in English now. The transition in the behaviour of students in Indumati Mehta’s class in a matter of 12 months has been impressive.

Mehta used to take English classes in a government high school in Siwan and was used to the cold response from her students. None of them used to actively take part in classroom discussions, mainly because they were frightened to speak in English.

But a year on, not only do the students take active part in Mehta’s class but they also eagerly wait for her classes. British Council’s intense training to Mehta has made all this possible. “Now, I really love taking classes, which was not the case earlier,” she said.

Mehta was one of the 112 teacher educators (as termed by the council) working in the government schools of the state who underwent the council’s 135-hour English course training. The teachers were taught different classroom activities through which she could encourage children to take active participation in her English class.

On Wednesday, British Council organised a convocation programme for the trained teachers. A total of 110 of the 112 teachers turned up and were awarded certificates on the occasion.

British Council officials said the training programme was part of Bihar Language Initiative in Secondary School (BLISS project), which aimed at strengthening English teaching in they state’s government schools. The council run the project in collaboration with the state government and the UK Department for International Development.

Michael Connolly, English language adviser, British Council, said: “Eighty per cent of the teachers we trained are mostly using English to communicate, while 83 per cent teachers said they have started praising students in their classroom whenever they speak in English so that they can break their uneasiness over speaking the language.”

Education minister P.K. Shahi was the chief guest at the event. Shahi said: “Though there is a political dimension to this issue, I personally feel that English should be made a compulsory subject in government schools of the state. I would congratulate the British Council for initiating this project. But I would not like this project to end on schedule, it must be extended. We need more teacher educators. We have around 2 crore teachers in elementary schools alone. So 112 teacher educators would not be enough.”

Earlier, Rob Lynes, director, British Council, Patna, spoke of how the British Council worked towards establishing a core group of teacher educators across districts. Also present at the programme was Sujata Sen, East India director, British Council, Michael Connolly, English language adviser, British Council, Joydeep Bordoloi, senior project manager, Bihar, British Council.