Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has called upon schoolteachers to take maximum benefit out of the new developments in the Information Technology sector and tap its possibilities to the full in the process of incorporating desirable changes in the conventional methods of teaching.
Opening a two-day international seminar on ‘Schools to Centres of Excellence’ at Nadakkavu Government Girls Vocational Higher Secondary School here on Monday, Dr. Isaac said the State government was busy with the process of implementing successful IT-enabled teaching models in schools where the teachers should be able to play the lead role.
“The plan of the government is to realise digital classrooms in all public schools to improve the standards of general education. The 2016-17 fiscal would be a year of turning points in the history of the general education in Kerala,” he said.
Govt. plan
Addressing the seminar, Education Minister C. Ravindranath said the seminar was planned with special focus on enlightening teachers on how to use the IT tools for improving the standards of schooling. “The government’s plan is to convert at least one school in each Assembly constituency to international standards. Meeting of local body heads will be convened after this two-day seminar, which will discuss in details some of the successful education models in the State,” he added.
PRISM project
A. Pradeepkumar, MLA, who explained the features of PRISM (Promotion of Regional Schools to International Standards with Multipurpose Intervention) project implemented at the Nadakkavu school, said it was a multi-level approach and intervention that ultimately helped him to take the project to success track. “We got intellectual, technical, financial and moral support from different sources,” he said. James Mathew, MLA from Taliparamba, pointed out that the main issue being faced by students in government schools was the lack of proper training facilities for improving their communication skills in English. “We overcame this by ensuring own or rented language labs in 109 out of 115 public schools in the Taliparamaba constituency,” he said.
A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Secretary of General Education and other senior officers from the Department of Education were present at the opening function. The seminar would conclude on Tuesday.
