Page 60 - EW April 2021

Special Report

CENTA TPO 2020

GROWING ENTHUSIASM FOR

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Against the backdrop of a difficult and challenging pandemic
year for India’s teachers, the online CENTA Teaching
Professionals Olympiad (TPO) 2020 attracted entries from
25,000 teachers in India and 30 countries abroad

Summiya Yasmeen

O NE YEAR ON SINCE THE CENTRAL pandemic which has ruined millions of livelihoods and lives

government ordered shutdown of
countrywide, is that India’s teachers community across the
all education institutions including
learning spectrum from KG-Ph D has become ready and
willing, even if not entirely able, to embrace new digital
preschools, schools, colleges and
technologies to teach the world’s largest child and youth
universities to check the spread
of the virulent Covid-19 pandemic
Against this backdrop of a difficult and challenging year
which has caused 128 million in-
fections and 2.8 million fatali- population. ®
for India’s teachers, announcement of the CENTA Teach-
ties worldwide and 12 million and ing Professionals Olympiad (TPO) 2020 results on March
162,000 in India (March 30), the country’s 9 million school 5, was enthusiastically welcomed by educators and school
teachers have emerged as heroes of the pandemic-battered managements countrywide. Promoted and organised by the
education system. Bengaluru-based Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CEN-
When schools were ordered to shut down overnight TA) Pvt. Ltd (estb.2014), a company that tests and certi-
without notice in March 2020, the teachers’ community, fies teacher competencies, the Centa TPO 2020 attracted
especially of 450,000 private schools which host 47.5 per- entries from 25,000 teachers of 8,000 schools in India and
cent of the country’s in-school children, responded with 30 countries abroad, including the UAE.
unexpected speed to switch to new digital information On March 5, 100 of Centa TPO’s 1,000 winners were
communication technologies (ICT) to continue their pupils’ felicitated online in a two-hour awards ceremony during
education online. Despite their previous record of being which globally respected education leaders including Dr.
slow to warm to the IT revolution that has transformed James Tooley, vice chancellor, University of Buckingham
teaching-learning around the world, the upside of the killer (UK); Ashish Dhawan, chairman, Central Square Foun-

62 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021