Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'NMMC comes up with a brilliant idea' that was published in In New Bombay

NMMC comes up with a brilliant idea

It is good to inculcate reading habits among children. The more you read when you are young, better will be your future. Making children read English newspaper is a very good idea. This will improve English language of the students. Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) should be lauded for making English newspaper reading compulsory for the students of civic school. The credit should of course go to NMMC Commissioner Dr. Ramaswami N. who has now made it compulsory to read English newspaper for students from standard 8^th to 10^th of NMMC schools.

This step by NMMC will prevent students from finding it difficult to follow English when they leave the school and pursue higher studies. Constant reading of English newspapers will make these students good speakers of English too. They will develop confidence to face the job interviewer. The chances of their getting the job will be greater if they possess a strong knowledge of English.

This is the right step taken by NMMC commissioner who has indeed proved that he cares for the future of the municipal school students. His observation that vernacular students face tough competition from their English educated counterparts when they reach college level or when they are trying for employment is absolutely correct.

NMMC schools did try this experiment of making their students read English newspapers for few month and they found good results. They should continue with this practice.

Why does English language stand out from other languages? It is simply because it is the most expensive language as compared to any other language in the world. Owing to English language being an expensive language, the number of teachers who can teach English are much less than those who can teach vernacular languages. As a result of this there are less number of English schools as compared to vernacular schools. Not only that, the fees in English Schools are much much more than in vernacular schools. It is difficult for all the parents to get their wards admitted in English schools and hence they are forced to make their children pursue their education in vernacular schools. But NMMC has come up with a solution for these vernacular students to develop proficiency in English language. They have come up with the idea of self-education which means the students should read the English newspapers on their own and thus develop their ability to read, write and speak English. A brilliant idea!