‘TRANSFORMING SCHOOLS – AN INITIATIVE TO IMPLEMENT NEP, 2020’

An extensive 5 days in-service training programme was designed for the teachers of Army Public School, Meerut Cantt from 1^st June to 6^th June, 2022.

Meerut : Any policy’s effectiveness depends on its implementation. Implementation requires multiple initiatives and actions, which has to be taken through the coherence in planning and synergy across all bodies involved in education. In an initiative to implement NEP 2020 and its core values among the teachers in order to bring the desired transformation in school, and to keep the teachers abreast of the changing education system and legal rights and duties, Army Public School, Meerut, organized a 5 days In-service Training Programme from 1^st June to 6^th June, 2022.

The programme commenced with a warm welcome note by the Principal Dr. Mrs. Reeta Gupta. In her talk she mentioned that the 5 day training programme has been designed in such a way that it would cater to the important agendas of NEP 2020 like focus on regular formative assessment for learning, emphasis on conceptual understanding, teachers and faculty as the heart of the learning process, technology use and integration and guidelines of safety and security of children and staff members in school.

The topic addressed on Day 1 was Professional Ethics. Dr. Ms. Sunita Devi, Counselling and Rehabilitation Psychologist and CBSE’s master trainer, was the resource person. Professional ethics are principles that govern the behaviour of a person or group in a professional environment. Being educators it becomes all the more important to display nobility in character not just in words but even actions because teachers lay the foundation block in a student’s life which in turn shapes the future of the country. To set a positive example, teachers must follow an ethical code of conduct to show professionalism. Those ethics ensure that the educational guides remain unbiased while doing their job and fulfill their objective of providing uncompromising education. Professional ethics determines their responsibilities towards the students. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person should act towards other people and institutions in such an environment.

Experiential Learning and Innovative Pedagogy was the topic for Day 2 which was again addressed by Dr. Ms. Sunita Devi. Teachers attended the same wherein it was conveyed that Experiential learning is an engaged learning process whereby students “learn by doing” and by reflecting on the experience. It has gained all the more momentum because The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 highlights that in all stages, experiential learning will be adopted. Today experiential learning has become an essential method in all innovative pedagogical practices as it holistically strives to shift the child from rote learning and memorization to learning by doing through experience and activity.

On Day 3, Mr. Prakhar Ghidyal and Ms. Charu Singh, Academic Coordinators Educational Initiatives conducted the training on the topic ‘Assessment for Learning the art of competency based questions’, to ensure assessment of learning, assessment by learning and assessment for learning. Formative assessments support competency-based education by making sure teachers understand students’ needs, so that they can modify instruction as it is happening. It was attended by teachers from Engllish, Maths and Science Department. The session was enriching as the teachers learnt the art of framing competency based questions, learning data to lesson plan, learning essential concepts to essential questions and what a question can do.

Day 4 was again addressed by Mr. Prakhar Ghidyal and Ms. Charu Singh, where data driven approach bridging the gaps of learning was discussed. Data-driven instruction is an educational approach that relies on information to inform teaching and learning. The idea refers to a method teachers use to improve instruction by looking at the information they have about their students. It takes place within the classroom. The topic was dealt extensively enhancing the teachers’ horizon on learning data for a bridge course beyond school hours and Learning Journey Plan – class wise.

A workshop on Scientific Temper was conducted by the primary teachers on 4^th June 2022 .The resource persons Mrs. Usha Sahrawat, Mrs. Jyoti Yadav , Mrs Anju Bala, Mrs. Divya Kunwar Mehra and Mrs Lakshika Gunwant explained the views on  AWES Initiative for Scientific Temper at Primary Level:  What is Scientific Temper? Science and Scientific: Temper Learning from Nature,. Need of Developing Scientific Temper at the younger age,. Traits which characterize Scientific Temper,. How can we develop scientific temper at the Primary Stage?,. Teaching and learning through experiments,  Officiating Headmistress (PW) Mrs. Mamta Singh and PW Coordinator Mrs. Preeti Tyagi along with 48 Primary Teachers attended the Workshop.

Day 5 was conducted on 6^th June by Team IRIS Shikha Agnihotri (Child Safety Expert) and Adv. Namrata Mishra (POCSO Expert). It dealt with an awareness programme for POCSO Legal Literacy Training. All children have an equal right to access education in an environment that is safe, protective and conducive to the overall development. NEP 2020 focuses on the safety and security of school-going girls both inside and outside of the campus. The schools have to ensure harassment, discrimination, and domineer free campus before enlisting for yearly accreditation. This will increase the attendance in the number of girl children in the class. The policy will identify social mores and gender stereotypes that prevent girls from accessing education and causing regular dropout. Teachers attended the same and were delighted to learn and become aware of the recent legal measures introduced for child security and safety which will further ensure to make schools safe and secure for children and staff members.

To conclude the 5 days session, Principal Dr. Mrs. Reeta Gupta thanked all the participants for their active participation and meaningful contribution. She said that The National Education Policy emphasizes the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is basically supported on the principle that education must develop both the ‘foundational capacities’ of literacy, numeracy, and ‘cognitive capacities’, such as critical thinking and problem-solving in addition to building ethical, social, and emotional capacities and dispositions. And to achieve this, a series of teachers’ workshop with the aim of ‘Transforming School’ – An initiative to implement NEP 2020 – at APS Meerut were organized.