The government on Wednesday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Sri Aurobindo Society and HDFC Bank for a comprehensive and innovative education programme to raise standards across government schools in Puducherry.
Education Minister R. Kamalakannan signed the tri-partite MoU, which aims to increase the efficiency of the existing education resources and infrastructure in the Union Territory of Puducherry and bring about a transformation in the quality and reach of education.
The MoU was signed at the Minister’s chamber in presence of G. Narendra Kumar, Development Commissioner and Secretary to Government (Education) and L. Kumar, Additional Secretary and Director of School Education.
Among others who were present were Mohinder Pal, State Project Director—Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rastriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), V. George Fernandez, State Coordinator—SSA, Balaji Krishnamachary, Vice President and Cluster Head—HDFC Bank, Vijay Poddar, Member Executive, Adminstration & Finance, Sri Aurobindo Society; Sambhrant Sharma, Director—Education, Sri Aurobindo Society.
Under this programme, Sri Aurobindo Society will train in-service teachers and principals for the following projects such as Zero Investment Innovation for Education Initiatives (ZIIEI), Comprehensive Mental Health Education (CMHE) Programme and In-Service Teachers and Principals Training.
The ZIIEI is part of all-India transformational education programme—RUPANTAR—led by Sri Aurobindo Society, and funded by HDFC Bank.
The programme will be implemented in government and government-aided schools across all the districts, starting with training of in-service teachers on solution-focused zero-investment ideas, and their systematic documentation.
Annually, the top ideas shared by teachers will be implemented on a wide-scale, again through a collaborative effort of the teachers themselves.
Monetary incentive
In turn, the educators as well as innovation-friendly schools will win the recognition of the education community, and a significant monetary reward for further developing their ideas.
“ZIIEI goes beyond the improvement in classroom delivery,” said Mr. Sambhrant Sharma.
The initiative encompasses all factors that affect the quality and reach of education, including administrative processes, infrastructure, parents and community outreach, leadership and technology. “Moreover, it will strongly focus on innovations which address the following developmental impact areas identified specifically for Puducherry.”
The programme is expected to be rolled out in a week or so with the training of the first batch of teachers.
“A handful of States have already come on board for what is one of the largest grassroots-level teacher training programmes,” said Puja Narula, of Sri Aurobindo Society.
Focus areas
The focus areas targeted by ZIIEI include decreasing learning outcomes and increasing learning gaps; low rate of student enrolment; rising student drop-outs; insufficient focus on girl education; deteriorating quality of education delivery in classroom and insufficient support for children with special needs.
The education initiative will also address absence of enquiry-led self-learning environment for students and lack of guidance and mentorship.
