Lucknow, Sep 9 (IANS): The secondary education department in Uttar Pradesh has decided to provide online spoken English training to teachers of government colleges.

This is an attempt to strengthen English education in the state.

The course is designed to provide an environment of English language and give ample practice of listening and speaking the English language.

The course will benefit 30,000 teachers and over one crore students enrolled in UP secondary schools from class nine to 12.

Developed by the English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI), Prayagraj, a unit of UP State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the online English course has 132 modules of 10 minutes each.

ELTI principal Skand Shukla said, "This course is different from the existing courses in the private sector in providing knowledge of essential grammar, syntax, common errors and conversation-practices and also following the general Indian English based on the British pronunciation."

The modules are interactive in nature and there is an assessment at the end of each course module.

Vikas Srivastava, deputy director, said, "With English as the world language, it is important to make teachers proficient. The spoken English course will be beneficial to teachers from across the streams - science, commerce and humanities. "

Secondary education director Sarita Tiwari has asked district inspectors of schools (DIOS) and joint directors to ensure English teachers in their districts and divisions undergo the training.