Why should we worry about English skills of our students?

English language proficiency level of students in different classes is not up to the mark nowadays. Students are unable to understand any text or answer to the questions according to the question paper. As a consequence, they cannot pass in the internal and external examinations. They even fail to obtain the pass mark in the university admission test. Their writing skill in different public examinations is very poor. To cross the border of examination, some students memorize important parts of the syllabus that is only necessary for passing the examination without understanding what they read or write.  

It has become a trend for some students to write irrelevant answers to the questions in the answer scripts as they do not take adequate preparation for the test. It seems that writing anything can bear marks and teachers are compelled to assign marks for them. Sometimes, students are found to demand marks on those irrelevant answers showing the logic that they have written something though it is not fully matched with the question in the question paper.

It is also found that students cannot response properly in the classroom if they are asked any question in English. Even they cannot understand a simple sentence, containing a simple subject and an object. When they are asked, they look at me as if I were a foreigner talking to them with a strange language. But the matter is that they have been studying this language in the classroom for about 10 years. They had to compulsorily sit for examination in this language for two hundred marks: English first paper containing one hundred marks; English second paper, containing grammar of one hundred marks.
From a survey report conducted over students, it is found that students of class eleven and twelve in college level, who have already passed Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination with very good GPA, cannot pronounce common and familiar English words correctly. When they are asked to read out any text from their textbook, they express their reluctance to read out as they are not confident about the pronunciation of the vocabularies even though the vocabularies are very simple and known. But when they are forced to read out, they read the text in a way that they have started learning the language only few days ago and they have not seen the vocabularies earlier.

The students current English proficiency level can be compared with the proficiency level before COVID-19 pandemic. The scene of students English skill was not like this before corona pandemic. The pandemic and its aftermath consequences have deteriorated the teaching-learning experience of English language.

During the pandemic, students passed Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Examination-2020 without sitting for examination. This batch is the first HSC exam candidates in the history of Bangladesh, who passed HSC examination in an auto promotion system. To provide them auto promotion, a new law had to be passed in the parliament. The students of this academic year are known as auto-pass students.  As a consequence, students of this academic year could not get a good chance to practice English in and outside the class. These students are now struggling for learning English in their higher education.

From the next academic year, their syllabus for SSC and HSC examination was shortened and their questions papers were restructured. Unfortunately, HSC candidates of 2021 were kept out of English examination to prevent the spread of corona virus among students. This situation again adversely affected the English teaching and learning process of students as in Bangladesh it is believed that no exam means no study. In case of SSC, English examination was taken in a very short form. This short version of examination greatly hindered students English learning capability. In this way, there is a huge gap between students English proficiency and English learning process.

This is about the students of upper classes. On the contrary, students from class one to class eight hardly got chances to learn English during COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to 2022. This situation is still adversely affecting students learning process as they got promotion to the next class without much knowledge of English in that period. Teachers are still struggling to make teaching-learning experience congenial for the students.

But the reality is not so easy as it is thought. How can the students who cannot pronounce a common word or cannot understand any simple sentence, be competent in complex grammar and get good GPA in the examination? When a student having this level of proficiency wants to be competent in completing sentences or in ransformation of sentences, I get myself into a fix. But there is always a pressure from the institution authority on the teachers to make those students experts in English. The authority expects GPA-5 from those students and when they get result less than from the expected level, teachers are held responsible.

Now the question is how can we get rid of this situation? How can our students be skilled in English? Although the answer is difficult, there is a solution. A comprehensive plan must be taken from teachers, students and guardians level. First of all, students must be aware of their weaknesses and must try to remove those weaknesses, becoming attentive to studies. They must realize that this is the golden period of life to prepared themselves for the future. If they do not learn English in this phase of life, they may not get any chance to learn the language in later period of their lives. In this case, students should always seek teachers support. Teachers should try their best to change the odd conditions into even. They should be more dutiful in their respective field.

Besides, the guardians have some responsibilities in this case. They should monitor students progress and motivate them to be attentive to their studies. A united effort can make the situation better for students as well as for the nation as a whole.

The writer is Assistant Professor of Englilsh, Principal Kazi Faruky College, Lakshmipur