Students following Star EIS page doing better

School students who regularly follow the weekly page "English in Schools" (EIS) of The Daily Star to improve vocabulary and grammar skills are doing better than others, said teachers in Rajshahi city yesterday.

Besides, the training under the EIS programme, a joint initiative of The Daily Star and Robi Axiata Ltd, has also helped the teachers impart lessons in a more interactive manner, they added.

Seventy five English teachers and headmasters from 25 secondary schools of Natore, Rajshahi, and Chapainawabganj districts participated in the daylong training under the EIS programme, which aims at stimulating English language learning among secondary school level students, at Hotel Warisan.

Md Omar Ali, headmaster of Naohata High School of Poba upazila in Rajshahi, said his students who read the page regularly are getting better marks. According to their parents, those students have also become more interested in English language, he added.

 "Instead of multimedia presentations, we use The Daily Star EIS page in our classes every Monday as the page contents are related to the syllabus. Besides, methods like group work and teaching through sharing experience learnt from EIS training have become successful in drawing pupils' attention", he added.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Rajshahi District Education Officer Rafiqul Islam emphasised the need for expanding the training programme for all teachers as well for other professionals in order to improve their communication skills.

Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, consultant of the EIS programme and former managing editor of The Daily Star, said age is not a barrier to education and the teachers must be equipped with modern teaching techniques to handle students of the digital era who are  eager to learn more.

The chief guest, Matiul Islam Nowshad, chief corporate and people officer of Robi Axiata Ltd, said, interactive presentation methods can capture and hold students' attention throughout the class.

Shireen Hasan, founder executive director, X-cel, the Institute of Interactive Learning, with her team conducted the training.