Hindi for primary students

Some state schools have introduced Hindi as a foreign language for primary level students. RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA reports

If you have primary school children in your family, you’ll know how much fun learning a foreign language at school can be. Your kids have probably come back home with French versions of their first names, or learnt to count up to 20 in Japanese, or gone to school on “Italian Day” dressed up as Italian characters.

If you’ve sometimes quietly wished your own language and culture could be part of such an exciting program for your children, your wish has come true. In some Sydney schools starting this academic year, Hindi is one of the languages that primary level students are learning.

Many non-Indian families are probably learning Indianised versions of their kids’ names (perhaps Harry becomes ‘Harish’ for the weekly Hindi lesson, Jack ‘Jagdish’ and Susan ‘Susmita’), aspects of Indian culture (what that dot really means), and preparing to dress their kids in “Bollywood glam” for that fancy dress parade.

In a new program named “India Calling”, the NSW Department of Education and Training has selected seven primary schools in the Sydney Region to launch an educational program based on Hindi and Indian culture.

The program is part of the ‘Region’s Expanding Horizons with Asia’ initiative, which began in 2008 and has reached nearly 12,000 students. So far concentrating on China through the ‘Expanding Horizons with China’ initiative, the Hindi program began this year as a pilot.

“India Calling provides our students and teachers with knowledge and understanding about India,” Dr Phil Lambert, the regional director of the Department of Education and Training, said. “Countries such as India and China are significant trading partners with Australia, and there’s little doubt that our students will be connected through work and life with these two super-powers in the future.”

True to Indian tradition, Dr Phil Lambert lit a ceremonial lamp to start off the first lesson on 9 February.

The program targets students in Years 3 and 4 who attend face-to-face lessons with specialist Hindi teacher Kulwinder Kaur. Quite uniquely, the also program involves lessons using video conference technology, through the Department’s innovative Connected Classrooms resources, connecting a total of 520 students across all the participating schools.

About what the lessons involve, Dr. Lambert revealed, “The weekly themes are centred around aspects of Indian culture. The teacher uses the theme to provide the basis for teaching Hindi and also ensures that aspects of Indian culture are incorporated into each lesson. The aim for each lesson is to develop an understanding of some basic concepts and some Hindi words”.

Students from the schools will also meet on significant days in the Indian calendar and participate in cultural activities. Later in the year the participating schools will be linked with sister schools in India, again through video conference.

Dr. Lambert initiated the program with the help of a Working Party made up of curriculum consultants, teachers and principals of participating schools, and experts in Indian culture and the Hindi language, notably Mala Mehta OAM of the IABBV and Gambhir Watts of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Mala Mehta, well-known in the community for her passion for the teaching of Hindi, was very pleased at this new program. “It was wonderful to be singing Hum Honge Kaamyaab with some 500 kids, most of them non-Indian,” she enthused. “And afterwards to teach some of them to make poori-aloo!”

How will the success of the program be assessed?

“The Working Party is scheduled to undertake a review of each Term’s program at the end of each term,” Dr. Lambert revealed. “An evaluation framework is being developed to assess students’ understanding and skills at the end of 2011. The evaluation will determine the direction beyond 2011. This might include extending the program in 2012 to other schools and/or extending the program to older students. Feedback to date suggests that the program is highly successful and that other schools are looking to join the program if invited”.

The participating schools in India Calling are: Ashbury Public School, Carlton South Public School, Cronulla Public School, Double Bay Public School, Kogarah Public School, Mascot Public School and Oatley West Public School.