Over 1L 80K teachers receive training

Srishti Lakhotia, MP, 30 Jan 2024, Kolkata: The Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) in collaboration with the School Education department is providing training to 1,81,000 teachers in the state to make school education more inclusive for Children with Special Needs (CWSN). 

The JBNSTS along with the department are unfolding the programme in a four-phase manner — providing orientation, sensitisation and training to teachers from pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher secondary amongst others. 

The training started in 2023, before which they conducted the first phase in 2022. To conduct the training process, 200 resource persons were trained by the experts in the field. 

These resource persons are now imparting training to teachers, who have been divided into a group of 200 (district-wise) and are being trained three days per group. The training is divided into nine segments and is being conducted through online interactive mode in order to reach all the selected teachers in a shorter time span. 

“After the second phase is completed, we are planning on introducing a helpline number for teachers, students and guardians,” Maitree Bhattacharyya, director of JBNSTS said. In the fourth phase, the programme will pan out to 24 academic districts. 

Resource persons will organise workshops at the district level to guide the teachers in order for them to implement inclusive education at the ground level. The programme includes ways in which the needs of CWSN students can be identified and given first-hand support. 

The new State Education Policy (SEP) 2023 notified by the state Higher Education department had also focused on the need to engage regular special education teachers in a phased manner to ensure each school has at least one such teacher within the next five years. The SEP recommended that it needed to be carried out after taking into consideration the concentration of CWSN candidates in schools. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/over-1l-80k-teachers-receive-training-550025