Students of Class 2 E at Holy Family School, Andheri (East), switch with easy familiarity from English to Marathi according to their time-table. If the first class is on itihas ani bhugol (History and Geography), the second class can be on Science.
Glen Patil and his 25 classmates are the first batch of students in the city to learn both Marathi and English as first languages.
When principal Father Francis Swamy decided to go bilingual five years ago, there weren’t too many takers for the idea. But Swamy was convinced.
‘‘Children in this class know the local language as well as the global one. They are at par with Std III Marathi-medium students and English-medium students,’’ he says.
Swamy says he noticed a gradual decline in the number of students for the Marathi-medium section of his school as parents with blue-collar jobs queued up outside the English-medium section during admission season.
Shaikh Shakeel, a driver, was one such parent. Shakeel admitted his son Shoaib to the Marathi-medium section because ‘‘we thought we could shift him to the English-medium school later.’’
‘‘We want him to pursue higher studies, so it’s important that he learns English,’’ says Shakeel, admitting that things have worked out fine for his boy now.
‘‘He knows three languages now. He speaks Hindi at home, Marathi with his friends and neighbours, and he’s picking up English quickly.’’
The bilingual classes took off after the school got permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Education Department—primary education falls under the civic body’s purview. School authoritities renew their permission every year and submit a progress report of the class.
Education Officer B R F Rahman says they have no plans to duplicate this model in their schools. ‘‘But we are open to other schools coming to us with similar ideas.’’
ketakighoge@expressindia.com