Page 31 - EducationWorld June 2020

Teacher training and development. Moreover under the ministry’s ate their initiative and hope all other
Teachers are being provided e- direction, pending examinations states will re-consider my request. I
learning resources under the Pandit are also being conducted at centres also hope all schools would be pro-
Madan Mohan Malaviya National conveniently accessible by students. viding timely salary to their teachers
Mission on Teachers and Teach- CBSE has added 12,000 additional and staff.
ing. The National Digital Library is exam centres across the country to Future plans. A task force has been
now being accessed by over 43,000 enable social distancing norms at
teachers daily. Simultaneously, the centres. constituted within the ministry
to take decisions on admissions,
portals such as NCERT, DIKSHA,
E-Pathshala, NROER (National Fee waiver/deferment. Private schools academic calendar, reopening of
should reconsider annual hike in
schools and guidelines to be fol-
Repository of Open Educational
Resources) and NIOS (National In- fees and collecting fees on a quar- lowed. They will initiate policies
terly basis during the lockdown. I
for the functioning of schools both
stitute of Open Schooling) and other
initiatives like robotics education request all schools to join hands during and immediately after the
in the fight against coronavirus,
pandemic. They will work at all
(e-Yantra), open source software for
education (FOSSEE), virtual experi- empathise with parents amid this levels until the WHO withdraws its
global disaster and re-consider their
pandemic declaration. We are also
ments (virtual labs) and learning
programming (spoken tutorial) are decision. I am happy that some working on the National Education
Policy (NEP) at a faster pace and
states have already taken positive
also experiencing a surge in access
rates. steps in this connection. I appreci- will soon submit it to Union Cabinet.
Gerry Arathoon We have directed our schools to levy
CEO & Secretray, CISCE only tuition fees and permit finan-
cially constrained parents to pay in in-
n English and education postgrad of stallments until the lockdown is lifted.
Utkal University, Gerry Arathoon is the We have also advised our schools not
Aformer principal of St. Thomas Church to increase tuition fees until the end
School, Howrah, West Bengal, who signed up of the current academic year, and to
with the Delhi-based pan-India Council for the maintain teacher and staff salaries/
Indian School Certificate Examinations (CIS- emoluments.
CE, estb.1958) board in 2002. In 2012, he was Top 3 proposals for reviving K-12 educa-
appointed CEO and secretary general of the tion...
board. Currently, CISCE has 3,000 affiliated Pedagogy. Greater emphasis on
schools across the country with an estimated process-based learning. Schools and
2.5 million students. teachers should ensure that rather
How has CISCE responded to the Covid-19 chal- than being mere recipients of infor-
lenge? mation, students are also actively in-
CISCE has always encouraged its schools to adopt innova- volved in the learning process.
tive practices and modern technology in their day-to-day Assessment. Exams should assess children’s knowl-
classroom transactions. Following outbreak of Covid-19, edge, capabilities and skills. Question papers should test
CISCE has taken several initiatives. Some of them are: students’ knowledge application, analysis and reasoning
• Several live teaching sessions have been organised by capabilities.
subject experts for classes III-XII through News 18, Ban- Teacher training. Greater emphasis on training of
gla and ABP Ananda television channels. Recordings of teachers in pedagogies involving use of 21st century skills
these sessions are available for public viewing on our web- such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, etc,
site www.cisce.org. along with greater use of technology in the teaching-learn-
• Advisories have been sent to all affiliated schools to use ing process.
modern and digital media for imparting education during What are your future plans for CISCE?
the lockdown period. CISCE will adopt technology in a bigger way in all its op-
• In addition to providing academic learning advice, erations so that its operations do not remain restricted to
CISCE has also tied up with the Fit India Mission of SAI any particular location but can be run from any geographi-
(Sports Authority of India) which has prepared live fitness cal location.
sessions for our schools. These sessions are also available Online teaching. To reach out to all affiliated schools,
on the CISCE website. even those in the remotest parts of the country and to ad-
• Online platforms are being extensively used in the dress the problem of non-availability of good teachers,
board’s interaction with all stakeholders engaged in ex- CISCE plans to venture into the area of online teaching.
amination-related work. Review of existing pattern of question papers, on-
Several state governments have issued fees waiver/deferment line examinations and assessment. CISCE plans to
circulars to private school managements. Your comment? review its existing pattern of assessment at the ICSE and
In CISCE, we have been carefully tracking the various fees ISC levels so there is greater focus on questions that re-
payment directives of state governments and high courts. quire the ability to reason, analyse, justify and evaluate.

JUNE 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 31