CHENNAI: We’ve seen students crunching numbers, and battling it out at several Olympiads. But, soon, teachers will be seen answering challenging questions at a different kind of Olympiad. The Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), a social enterprise that aims at recognising teachers and catalysing professional development, , is organising the nationwide CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad TPO 2015, presented by The Hindu .
The Olympiad is open to teachers across boards, subjects and classes and will be held this December. CENTA founders Ramya Venkataraman and Nalini Haridas, both alumni of IIT-Delhi, say that the broader objective of CENTA is to help carve a professional development path for teachers, and through the Olympiad, the near-time goal is to reward them for their competency.
“The two-hour test will have objective type questions on the chosen subject and standard, logical reasoning, communications and pedagogy and classroom practices,” says Ramya.
She adds that it will be different from the tests teachers take for regulatory requirements.
Nalini says, “The Olympiad is an opportunity to help them understand their professional development path and is entirely self-driven.”
She adds that the Olympiad is based on the CENTA draft teacher standards cutting across boards. They received feedback on the standards from teacher educators, principals and other stakeholders.
Prizes include a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh for the first place and other awards. Winners will be invited to an international conference and will be given education technology devices.
However, Ramya clarifies, “After the event, teachers, irrespective of their score, can choose to undertake a CENTA certification that will help them develop their career path.” So just like how teachers cheer for their students during Olympiads, they hope students will cheer for their teachers this time.
The Olympiad will be held on December 5 in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. Registrations opened on August 1. Those interested can log on to www.tpo-india.org.
