A photograph of a government school classroom shared by Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains triggered a political row this week after Opposition leaders spotted glaring spelling errors.The animal deer had been spelt as ‘dear’ and vegetables spelt “vegitables” in the poster displayed in the classroom.Bains had shared photographs to highlight the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s “Sikhya Kranti” (Education Revolution), stressing that Punjab had emerged as the country’s top-performing state in school education, ahead of Kerala, according to a NITI Aayog report.Nearly a decade ago, when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was in power in alliance with the BJP, spelling errors made by teachers had shocked the then education minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema.In 2015, when more than 80,000 Class X students failed the English board exam, Cheema himself took a ‘class’ of English teachers and the results were shocking. The language teachers made spelling errors like vacent (vacant), shuld (should), lake (lack) and eaght (eight).Also Read | Reading crisis in Punjab govt schools: Half can’t read Punjabi, 75% unable to read EnglishThey also failed to construct basic sentences when asked to write a paragraph explaining why their results were poor. One of the teachers wrote, “It class was very weak class from 6 by chance.” Except one, none among the more than 200 teachers were able to converse in English. Some teachers gave reasons such as getting nervous while writing, forgetting their spectacles at home, that the children hailed from rural backgrounds, to name a few.Story continues below this adIn 2016, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) doled out 25-30 grace marks in English to reduce failures in the language.No separate cadre till 2007Punjab did not have a separate cadre to recruit specialised English teachers till 2007. Teachers of social studies and even Punjabi, without any expertise in English, were made to teach the language to Classes 6 to 12.While the same teacher teaches all subjects to Classes 1 to 5, subject-specific teachers teach Class 6 to 10, and lecturers teach Class 11 and 12 in Punjab’s government schools.It was only in 2007-08 that around 1,000 master cadre posts for English teachers were advertised and 800 were recruited, which many believe is too few. Even today, several schools do not have an English teacher, with other subject teachers filling-in for them in makeshift arrangements.Story continues below this adIn 2010, the Punjab government in an affidavit filed in the High Court, admitted there was no provision to hire English teachers till 2007. The government stated that recruitments of masters/mistresses are governed by the Punjab State Education Class III (School Cadre) Service Rules, 1978 which lay down conditions for appointment to the various posts, including Punjabi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Mathematics, and Social Studies teachers, but not English.Expert Explains | ASER’s 2023 survey results show gaps in learning; tech access is an avenue beyond schoolsIn 2016, a history teacher had even moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Punjab education department for being forced to teach English. “How can I teach English when my core subject is history? Future of students cannot be put at stake,” he had told the court.In fact, it was only in 1999-2000 that veteran SAD leader and former education minister late Tota Singh had introduced English as a subject at primary level from Class I. Earlier, in Punjab, English was introduced as a subject only from Class 6 in government schools.Course correctionThe AAP-led government, after coming to power in 2022, has made some efforts to course correct. Along with hiring English teachers, the education department has also collaborated with organisations such as the British Council and the Regional English Language Office (RELO) of the US Embassy, to train teachers and improve their proficiency in English.Story continues below this adWith thousands of students from Punjab annually appearing for IELTS— the English proficiency exam to migrate to English-speaking countries — the Punjab education department has also started a special curriculum in government schools to hone speaking, writing and listening skills of the children.2024 promotionsIn 2024, the Punjab education department promoted 301 master cadre teachers as English lecturers (to teach Class 11 and 12), but 298 of them had no expertise in the language and came from other subjects’ backgrounds. Majority had not pursued English as an elective subject in graduation, nor as teaching subject in B.Ed but were promoted after pursuing Masters in English via distance learning. The flawed promotion policy came under heavy criticism.In Express | Rajasthan students attended school with cattle. Now, CJP spotlight and Rs 18-lakh upgradeThe anomaly had sparked a debate, with teachers who had cleared elective English demanding that at least a basic exam should be conducted before promoting teachers from other subjects as lecturers.Harpinder Singh Dhillon, representative, Association of English Teaching Aspirants, Punjab, says: “The decades of neglect that English faced in Punjab cannot be rectified in a few years. How is it even imaginable that the language never had a separate cadre? Even after the state started hiring English teachers in 2007, there were no service rules. It was only after we moved the High Court in 2016 that service rules were made for English cadre.”Story continues below this ad“At primary level, the situation is worse. The ETT teachers have poor foundation in English. That’s because it’s a chain. Their own teachers never had an English teacher in those times,” Dhillon said.