Teachers will not have to attend training programmes

A SCHOOL TEACHER MANAGER PROGRAMME WAS ALSO LAUNCHED THAT WILL DO THE ADMINISTRATIVE WORK FOR SCHOOLS

MUMBAI: Don’t be surprised if you find your teacher checking out Youtube to answer any question you raise in class. The state government has decided not to hold separate training programmes for teachers, instead they have asked them to look up educational videos if they have any doubts. The department has asked teachers, educationists to send in concepts which they find difficult by July 5. The department will either look up existing videos on those subjects or make new ones.

Stating that nearly 130 teaching days are wasted every academic year in teacher training and administrative work, the school education department has decided to provide educational videos to teachers instead of training programmes to keep them updated on their subject.

“Teachers need to spend more time inside the classroom,” said Nand Kumar, principal secretary of the department. “So we have decided to not hold any routine training programmes this year and expose them to online videos that will help in improving their teaching.”

The department with the help of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will upload various videos on the SCERT websites. “Teachers can access the videos there,” said Nand Kumar. “We have also created a system in which teachers can request videos on particular topics and we will provide it to them.”

He added that the department has also launched a school teacher manager programme that will do the administrative work for schools. “This way teachers will not be bothered with administrative work as well,” said Nand Kumar.

However, schools said that online videos cannot be a substitute for face to face training. “Institutes such as Yashada have experienced trainers who are best at training teachers,” said Father Francis Swamy, manager of St Xavier’s School, Fort and joint secretary of the Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE). “It will be difficult to say how much teachers will learn merely by watching a video and whether they will even bother to watch it.”

Source | Hindustan Times | 25 June 2015