US ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma seemed visibly impressed by the English-speaking abilities of underprivileged students at the School of Creative Learning today. The students of the school run by the NGO Association for Promotion of Creative Learning staged a skit for the ambassador, who was on his first visit to Patna.

Verma showered praise on the children and said that activity-based learning at the school could play a big role in shaping kids from underprivileged sections. Under the US embassy-funded English Access Microscholarship Programme, the school runs spoken-English classes for 100 students thrice a week.

"The School of Creative Learning has taken the right approach of teaching English to the students," said Verma, whose father was a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown in Pennsylvania. "English is a global language. If underprivileged children are taught English, it would help in their overall development and it would also help them in their career later."

Anish Kumar (13), who played Mahatma Gandhi in the skit, seemed to buttress the ambassador's argument, rattling off his dialogues confidently.

"Not a single person in my family knows English," said Anish, who is from Nargadda village around 10km west of Patna. "Thanks to the English-speaking classes being held at my school under the US embassy funded programme, I can speak the language. Hundred students of our school, most of whom are from downtrodden families, are being equipped with English-speaking skills in a joyful manner. We are being taught English through various activities. We are taught English skits and songs. Many other activities are organised in which we are asked to keep in mind to interact with each other only in English. This has helped us a lot. I don't have English-speaking environment at home. It is only when I come to school and attend the embassy funded programme, I get to speak in English with my classmates."

Vicky Kumar (14), another class VIII student, said even punishments are interesting at the school.

"Once I was caught interacting in Hindi with my classmate. The teacher asked me to sing an English song. Whenever any student is caught speaking in Hindi, the same punishment is given to the student," said Vicky.

Apart from the skit, the students also took part in a fashion show in which they introduced themselves in English. The ambassador later interacted with the students, who asked him interesting questions including how they could become ambassadors.

"We try to teach English to students through innovative approaches," said Vijoy Prakash, an IAS officer who is a patron of the school. "We always focus on making the learning process fun-filled so that it becomes easy for the students, all of whom are first-generation English learners."

After the school, Verma visited Samman Foundation, an NGO that helps rickshaw pullers. The ambassador was to also meet Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind and chief minister Nitish Kumar in the evening and take part in a closed-door meeting with industrialists.

"It is my first visit to Bihar and it is good to be here," Verma, whose parents were from Punjab and who was born in Canada, told reporters. "Last year Indo-US relations scaled a new high. President Obama visited India last year in January just four months after Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US. This year, it is time to make this relationship even stronger and concrete. India and the US have come together for different deals and agreements in different fields, be it defence, economics, education, science and technology and trade. Last year, the US issued visas to 1.2 million Indians. I will be meeting the governor and the CM and am sure that the meetings will be fruitful."