IIT faculty members to train Assam govt school teachers

GUWAHATI: IIT-Guwahati faculty members will train teachers of Assam government schools, many of which have received showcause notices from the state education department for registering zero pass percentage in the recently announced Class X state board exam results.
Altogether 102 government-run schools have been showcaused, where the pass percentage has been between zero and 10%.
Speaking to the media, education minister Ranoj Pegu said, “In order to train the teachers, especially those imparting maths, science and english lessons, we have inked a deal with IIT- Guwahati. We are also taking measures so that school teachers can benefit from college teachers through training programme.”
Pegu said the education department will revamp the school education system soon. “The government is considering implementation of a school rule book across the state. Introduction of the concept of class
teacher is also being mulled. There will be some changes in the course curriculum as well,” he added.
The government took a serious note of the poor performance by government-run schools and the director of secondary education even warned the school headmasters and principals that they may be dismissed from service if their reply to the showcause notices are
unsatisfactory.
Prof. Parameswar K Iyer, dean, public relations at IIT Guwahati, said the MoU signed between IIT-Guwahati and Samagra Shiksha, Assam education department, would promote science and technology at various
levels of the schools and colleges across the state. These activities are likely to begin very soon, he added.
IIT-Guwahati director Prof. TG Sitharam said the aim is to enhance the quality of education in the state by providing exposure to world-class laboratories at IIT-Guwahati, bringing awareness on modern teaching
methodologies and providing residential training to teachers followed by regular proactive follow-up efforts. “We will closely work with the education department of the state and identify areas that require immediate upgrading so that the education standards in the state can be improved drastically,” he added.
IIT-Guwahati said the collaboration will be for conducting various activities under Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan such as master trainer residential training program on science subjects at IIT-Guwahati, school mentoring activities, science and maths quizzes and olympiads.