Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar, Friday, said the audio-visual, interactive teaching through multi-media computer aided Smart Classes, makes teaching more effective and such technology-driven methods make learning interesting for the students. He said J&K is among the first states in the country to begin the smart classes in the government schools and the ambitious initiative has been set-off with the training of teachers.The Minister was speaking at the concluding session of the 5-day interactive training for government school teachers in Smart Class technology. The capacity building programme in the said technology was organised by National Institute of Electronic & Information Technology (NIELIT) in collaboration with the Department of Education.
The programme was concurrently run at both NIELIT centres in Srinagar as well as in Jammu. Around 20 teachers in Jammu and 25 teachers in Srinagar from four Model Schools in each division participated in the training programme.
The Minister said the objective of establishing Smart Classrooms is to provide education through audio visual methods in composed environment to sustain the interest of students. The smart classroom is a proven mechanism which helps in quality enrichment through technological intervention, the Minister added.He said that such technology makes teaching more effective and simple while as learning easier to comprehend. He said that government is keen to multiply the number of smart classrooms in the schools and colleges in coming times.
The Minister said that such training programmes will help build an e-environment as the teachers being trained will be acting as master trainers, thus helping in producing larger number of e-learned teaching professionals in the State.
The Minister, appreciating the role of NIELIT in the field of ICT, said that it has been in forefront in creating an e-learning environment in the State adding that Education Department is working along with NIELIT as a knowledge partner in the said field.The Minister said he hoped that together with NIELIT they could give the State of Jammu and Kashmir a new partnership in various such initiatives, adding that the institute has been proactive in helping generate e-literacy in the State through various programmes.
The Minister also interacted with the participants of the programme in Jammu and with the Managing Director NIELIT, in Delhi via video-conferencing.The Managing Director NIELIT hailed the J&K Government’s pioneering initiative of technology-driven teaching through smart classes and CAL. He also agreed to explore the possibility of providing tablets to the students of at least one class in every model school.On the occasion some of the participating teachers also presented lessons prepared by them through Smart Class technology.Commissioner Secretary School Education, Shaleen Kabra, Director NIELIT, A H. Moon besides other senior officers and NIELIT staff were also present on the occasion.