A five day online Professional Development Program on Pre-Primary Education commenced here today under Samagra Shiksha. The training was conducted in association with Ampersand Group, a Mumbai based Group involved in Educational Services all across the country and abroad.The program, being conducted through online mode with 50 teachers participating from Kashmir, will focus latest techniques of teacher training which are highly scalable and can be rolled out to thousands of teachers across the UT.During the inaugural session, Dr.Asgar Samoon, Principal Secretary School Education stated that this programme would be highly beneficial for the teachers to enhance their skills and usher a new era in academics and learning in the UT. He added that unlike webinars, it’s a holistic training and well organized Faculty Development Program designed in line with NCERT Curriculum. The pilot project of online teacher training would help scores of teachers across the UT to maintain continuity in learning especially during winter season when most areas here remain cut-off from the rest of the country. Being a geographically challenging region, online teacher training will boost upgradation of teachers irrespective of the impediments.Dr. Samoon stressed upon improving quality in Early Childhood Education and asked the Ampersand Group to explore possibilities for Educational Investment in J&K.
The inaugural session was also attended by Director School Education, Kashmir, Younis Malik, who told that there was overwhelming response from Kashmir to join this program. He told that after the implementation of Right to Education in J&K and as per New Education Policy, the focus of Government is more on Pre-Primary Education. As such, he reiterated to cover all the teachers engaged in pre-primary in such trainings.Dr. Arun Manhas, Project Director Samagra Shiksha, expressed gratitude to Chairperson Ampersand Group, Rustom Kerawalla, for joining hands with Samagra Shiksha, J&K, towards organizing this program. He said that Samagra Shiksha is strongly focusing on Pre Primary Education in schools and is in the process of opening new Kindergartens across the UT. Since, to deal with these young kids, teachers require enormous playway skills, as such Samagra Shiksha is conducting this Professional Program to meet the gaps in Early Childhood Education.Later, Chairman Ampersand Group stated that the programme aims to cover certain vitals aspects for Early Childhood education with teachers through a tech-enabled platform and would cover modules such as child development, special needs, safety practices in school, and curriculum planning among others.