IIM module now in schools

Top Indian Business school techniques are likely to find their way to government schools across the country. And what’s more, to ensure that teachers can effectively use those skills, teachers will be put through an intensive training module designed by the B schools.

The HRD Ministry is asking not just business schools but also some of the country’s premier universities to pitch in to upgrade teacher training modules to ensure that students in government schools read underprivileged children get better quality education.

The ministry has already short listed Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Administrative Staff College of India (Hyderabad), the University of Delhi and the Jamia Millia Islamia as the first four institutions to be roped in for the “new, improved teacher training project”.

Ministry sources said the plan was to get the country’s best educational institutions to design an all new module for teacher training which in turn can be implemented through teacher training programmes regularly offered by all State Councils for Educational Research and Training.

At the conference of the directors of SCERTs on Thursday chaired by Secretary Elementary Education, Kumud Bansal, participants agreed to tackle the teacher training issue on a war footing. This would effectively change the entire method and syllabus of training provided to government school teachers and is consequently expected to reflect in their classroom manner, government sources said.

Participants at the meeting on Thursday also agreed to re-assert the original mandate of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) by re-involving them in action research and functioning as evaluation centers for teacher training programmes.