Teachers working in government and aided primary schools in Mangalore city and taluk are preparing to adapt themselves to a different approach towards their students. They are undergoing training on the Right to Education (RTE), Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation (CCE), and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).
On Wednesday, one of the subjects that the teachers discussed at the training centre in Government High School, Bunder, was the changing attitude of children towards teachers and how to handle them appropriately. “We (teachers) cannot go on with our old ways,” said Jayanthi K, Headmistress, BMLP School, Car Street, who was the trainer at the school for the session on RTE.
Geetha, Cluster Resource Person (CRP), Deralakatte, speaking in Uchil Bovi Higher Primary School, said that with the CCE, teachers had to evaluate children according to several parameters. They had to study the student formally and informally. “It is not just the classroom that matters but outside the classroom too,” she said. Agnes Dotty Pinto, Nodal Officer, Mangalore taluk, at the same centre, said as part of training on RTE, the teachers were told of how they were stakeholders in the child's growth. Vishwanath M.K., headmaster, GHP School, Kumpala, said that education today was different from what it was earlier. He said that copies of Totto Chan , a book about how a Japanese girl of the same name was given informal education, was given to the participating teachers.
One teacher, who did not wish to be named, said that although the teachers were enthusiastic about participating in the training, there were challenges that arose in implementing them. He said that it was difficult to convince parents that the CCE was a good system of evaluation.
Parents point to private, English-medium schools that had an evaluation system with marks. Fifty teachers from 42 government primary schools and 39 aided primary schools were being trained at Government High School, Bunder, said Subraaya Pai, Block Resource Person (BRP). Dayananda Patali, Block Resource Co-ordinator (BRC), Mangalore city, said that in the Mangalore city area, 392 teachers were undergoing training at four centres, including three government schools in Gandhinagar, Ladyhill, Bunder, and at a training facility in Urwa. He said that 200 teachers, 50 at each centre, were trained currently. Lakshminarayan, Block Resource Co-ordinator (BRC), Mangalore taluk, said that 600 teachers from 204 government and aided Kannada-medium schools were undergoing the training from the taluk area.
At Uchil Bovi Higher Primary School, on Wednesday, three batches were trained simultaneously. The first batch had 53 teachers while the second and third batch had 56 and 46 teachers participating in them respectively, said Ms. Pinto.
