Special training for primary school teachers in Tamil Nadu to begin today

Chennai: Starting today, primary school teachers will assume the role of students and get trained in teaching methodologies for the newly launched state board textbooks for Classes I-III. The three-day special training, announced last month, will be held from 9am to 5pm, sensitising the teachers in planning activities, and teaching lessons through stories.Officials from the school education department said the trainers would be block resource teachers employed through the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). These trainers themselves were taught last month by faculty of the district institute of education and training (DIET).“We have 53 block resource teachers, most of whom will be deployed at 10 blocks in Chennai on Monday. One school in each block has been chosen for the training,” said Kamaraj, assistant project officer, SSA.SCERT officials said that the training would be more of an orientation session than an intense program.“Ultimately, every teacher has his/her way of taking the concepts to students. What we intend to do is to guide them through a template. For instance, there are lessons in the language book which starts with a song. We will push the teachers to try out these methods in the classroom,” a faculty member said.Teachers are optimistic. “This year, the workbook has been integrated with the textbooks. There are several ‘do-it-yourself’ activities for students, where we need to get a clarity on how much teachers can intervene and guide students,” said Stella Rosaline, headmistress, Chennai Primary School, Thiruvanmiyur.Schools will reopen for all classes from June 4.