Parents set goals to reach for proficiency in Hindi – Herald Goa

January 10 is celebrated as Hindi Day in memory of the inaugural World Hindi Conference that took place in Nagpur on January 10, 1975. As the country celebrates this beautiful language that connects millions across the globe, it is a time to introspect whether children in Goa are getting the right exposure to the language, right from their school days. In Goa, Hindi is hardly written except for educational projects, it becomes difficult to teach the child without the parents learning the language first. Schools affiliated with the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) introduce Hindi as a language for students of Class 5.

Hindi is a compulsory subject and the students who were affected by the lockdown online classes are yet to complete their class 10. Lucia D’Cruz is mother to a Class 4 student, who was in KG-II when the lockdown was announced. He only returned to the physical classroom as a Class 2 student at an ICSE board school , where he missed his basics in Hindi. “Right now, he is good in conversational Hindi but when it comes to writing and understanding the words, he finds it difficult. He gets confused between adjective, nouns, and pronouns,” says Lucia.

Anjana Kharbe, a Hindi teacher at Holy Cross High School, Siolim shares the difference she has noticed among the students who learnt their Hindi basics during the online classes. While conversing in Hindi has not been a problem, it is when it comes to their writing skills that the students are struggling. “Their writing skills has gone down drastically as they don’t know to write basic Hindi. They find it very difficult to be creative in essay writing, letter writing and comprehension. English speaking children, especially outsiders who don’t speak Konkani at home find it difficult. Those who are very good in Konkani or Marathi, they are the toppers in Hindi and find the language very easy in Class 5 and 6,” says Anjana.