18 Jun 2007
Education in the state of Uttarakhand has shown significant progress for a new state. With a focussed agenda towards the large-scale integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in secondary education, the department of education, Uttarakhand, has achieved the target of computerising all 1,700 government high schools and government inter-colleges (GICs) in the state, with a minimum of four computers per school. The government has also successfully implemented training and orientation programmes for the teaching and administration staff across these schools, in partnership with Microsoft India.
According to V Rama Rao, educational advisor to the government of Uttarakhand, the programmes have been successful in creating a drive among teachers to incorporate ICT during instruction, and many of them have created digital lessons to explain concepts. “There has been a marked difference in student performance and exploratory capabilities, as computer-demonstrated concepts are understood much more effectively,” says Rao, adding, “absenteeism has gone down to a great extent, as the combination of traditional and computer-aided teaching is far more interactive and helps students retain what is learnt.”
Under Microsoft’s Project Shiksha in Uttarakhand, teachers attend the regular or accelerated programme, depending upon the extent of their familiarity with ICT tools. The 12-day residential programmes are conducted at the world’s first Microsoft Information Technology Academy (ITA) in Dehradun, and follow-up training courses are held at the state government’s District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) at Almora, Barkot, Gauchar, Tehri and Roorkee. Says Narendra Singh Gusain, principal, GIC, Kwanu: “Teachers are selected from each school based on voluntary interest. However, science teachers have an advantage due to their proficiency in English.” At the end of the course, participants are awarded the ‘Partners in Learning Certificate’.
Says Tarun Malik, head – rural computing, Microsoft India, “ICT enhances the teaching-learning process. Our project aims to empower teachers at GICs all over India, beyond the top 10 cities. Though level of participation varies between schools, till May 31, 2007, we had managed to train 8,217 teachers in Uttarakhand.” So far, Microsoft has reached out to over 5.5 million students under the $20 million project, through 1,10,000 teachers trained at ITAs in Uttarakhand (Dehradun), Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Karnataka (Gulbarga, Dharwad, Bangalore), Maharashtra (Pune and Nagpur) and Rajasthan (Jaipur).
Adds Malik: “We have also instituted the Innovative Teachers Leadership Award (ITLA) to recognise projects by the best trainees. Uttarakhand has consistently been represented among the 10 ITLA winners from India every year.” Says Uttarakhand’s U C Pandey, the ITLA national winner out of 14,000 participants in 2006: “Of my 20 years of teaching experience, the past five since I attended the training in 2002 have been the most satisfying.”
News Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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