India’s leading school education board, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted a first-of-its-kind training session in South East Asia at the Global Indian International School’s Queenstown Campus in Singapore from 18th May to 20th May, 2012. The fourth annual Teacher Empowerment Programme by CBSE International (CBSE-i) was attended by CBSE Chairman Mr Vineet Joshi, along with Dr Sadhana Parashar, Director - Training, CBSE. The training session was facilitated by Dr Srijata Das, Education Officer - Science, CBSE and Ms P Rajeswary, Trainer, CBSE.
Ninety eight (98) teachers from five campuses, viz. GIIS Queenstown Campus (Singapore), GIIS East Coast Campus (Singapore), GIIS Balestier Campus (Singapore), GIIS Kuala Lumpur Campus (Malaysia) and NPS International (Singapore) participated in the 3-day workshop.
At the opening of the 3-day workshop, Mr Vineet Joshi and Dr Sadhna Parashar addressed the gathering. In his speech, the Chairman said that CBSE i curriculum is now being offered to students of Class 11. He also added that 50 schools in India will be offered this international curriculum as a pilot project, and parents and students opting for this curriculum will be given access to the CBSE-i portal.
The workshop covered the teaching techniques involved in the formative and summative assessments and integrating Life skills, Perspective Research & SEWA in the main curriculum.
The session on “Exploring some tech tools for the classroom” helped participants apply ICT (Information and Communication Technology) meaningfully in teaching & learning activities, enabling them to plan lessons more effectively. Developing content and preparing learning materials, and integrating active learning methods were also goals of the workshop. Through various case studies and a range of activities involving Life skills, Perspective and SEWA, the teachers were enabled to make these classes come alive, and in the process empower students to make value-based choices. The interactive and team-based training module implemented by CBSE-i facilitated a hands-on, ‘student-centric’ learning.
Ms K P Sheeja, CBSE-i Coordinator, GIIS Queenstown Campus said, An inter-disciplinary approach towards education - the mantra of CBSE-i curriculum - was reinforced through this training programme; enabling a better understanding of the curriculum’s teaching pattern amongst teachers. It truly was a great learning experience to interact and share thoughts with other teachers... and with such outstanding resource persons mentoring us, the workshop did make us come back to the classroom with fresh new ideas . The training provided teachers with a 21st century learner’s perspective, added CBSE-i Coordinator, GIIS East Coast Campus Ms Sreedevi N Raghavan.
Ms Jacinta George, Teacher, GIIS Kuala Lumpur, said, "I think what we learned at the CBSE-i workshop, if utilized properly |
 |
would enhance our horizons and in the process help our students to have a vision of the emerging world. We can benefit by sharing our ideas and information."
Expressing his appreciation towards CBSE for choosing GIIS as a host institution for conducting training in this region, Country Director (Singapore), GIIS, Mr Rajiv Vasudeva, said, “We take teacher training and skills up-gradation at GIIS very seriously. We are sure that GIIS has the largest number of CBSE-i trained teachers in this region.”
GIIS parent and student interaction with the CBSE Chairman
Taking a leap forward with changing times, CBSE Chairman, Mr Vineet Joshi has spearheaded a host of initiatives; from introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and replacing marks with grades, to replacing the Board examination with school-based assessment in Class 10. Another remarkable development has been the introduction of Monitoring and Mentoring scheme for implementation of CCE in the right spirit.
Addressing GIIS parents at a Parent Interaction Session on May 19 at GIIS Balestier Campus, Mr Joshi emphasised that parent involvement is critical to the effective implementation of the CBSE-i curriculum. “Parents have a huge role (in delivery of CBSE-i curriculum). This is our main purpose of interacting with the parents. The idea is to involve the parent so that he or she acts as a positive bridge between the regulators and the place where (teaching) is actually happening”, he said.
On May 20, GIIS CBSE students got an opportunity to meet him. At the meeting, Mr Joshi was pleased to note the appreciation from students for adopting the CGPA system for Class 10 exams. He touched upon key differentiators between the CBSE and CBSE International. “The major difference is our stress on Life Skills in a major integrated way. Life skills like Critical thinking, creative thinking, working in teams, understanding each other. There are different activities designed under different subjects that are time and again emphasising on acquisition of these Life Skills, which are very important for a child (in the 21st century)”.
Summing up his experience about his visit to GIIS, Mr Joshi said, “It has been a wonderful experience. We have never seen such involved participants. I am really very happy and thankful to GIIS and the management for giving us such a wonderful training venue”.
In his message for GIIS students, Mr Joshi said, “Be healthy and work hard. Emphasise on the process and don’t bother about the outcome. If you bother about the outcome, you will be unnecessarily stressed. If you are doing what is expected, you will get the outcome”.
YouTube link for viewing glimpses of CBSE-i training and interaction with CBSE Chairman, Mr Vineet Joshi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYtp
F0GbtA4&list=UURkRYePy43BDjBKtcNn
Q5KA&index=0&feature=plcp |