The higher education department is planning to tie up with top Indian universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for conducting refresher training programmes for the college teachers of Odisha.
There are about 500 government and aided non-government degree colleges in the state imparting general undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) education in science, humanities and commerce streams. “Though regular refresher trainings are essential for our college teachers to get themselves updated about their subject and pedagogy, due to various constraints, it is not possible on the part of majority of the teachers to undergo refresher training programme regularly,” said department secretary Saswat Mishra in an official letter issued on Wednesday.
Keeping this situation in mind, the department is exploring the possibility of tying up with top universities of the country for conducting online refresher courses for college teachers. Mishra has written a letter to JNU vice-chancellor requesting the latter to consider the decision. “If you are interested, we can discuss the matter further to finalise the proposal,” stated the secretary urging JNU VC.
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According to the terms and conditions of the proposal, refresher training should be imparted by the university in online mode with all features similar to Union ministry of education’s Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching. This training programme should be approved by the university grants commission (UGC).
The programme should be conducted by the university exclusively for the college teachers of Odisha in multiple batches of appropriate size. It is not necessary for the university to conduct refresher training programmes in all subjects. It may identify some subjects for this purpose where it has got necessary expertise for conducting online refresher training programmes.
Mishra stated that this is a win-win situation for three stakeholders- the university, college teachers and the state government. The university will generate a lot of revenue for itself and college teachers will get opportunity of being trained by top universities of the country from the comfort of their home. Finally, the state government will be able to enhance quality of higher education in the state by ensuring regular refresher training of its college teachers by top universities of the country, he added.
There are plans to rope in four another top universities of the country for this purpose.
Courtesy: TOI
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