Director SCERT Cautions against 'KhanaPurti' Culture

Director SCERT, Prof. Veena Pandita

Bats for close synergy between the SCERT Divisional Offices, result-oriented trainings

By Farooq Shah

SRINAGAR- Director State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), J&K, Prof Veena Pandita on Wednesday stressed the need for better coordination and synergy between the SCERT Divisional Office Jammu & Kashmir in achieving the objectives as laid down in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Prof. Pandita chaired a review meeting, held through virtual mode, with the HODs and Faculty Members of the different wings/departments of SCERT and sought reports from them with regard to the programs, workshops and other activities conducted so far. All the departmental heads from both the divisional Offices attended the meeting.

“Departments/Wings have been distributed between the two SCERT Divisional Offices in a manner that they must function in tandem with each other,” She said. “Some important departments such as Curriculum Development & Studies, Educational Research, Survey & Assessment (ERSA), Teacher Education etc have been allotted either at SCERT Divisional Office Jammu or Kashmir only and all such Departments are mandated to function at the UT level to cater to the needs of all the 20 Districts and here is where a strong synergy is required.”

Underlining the importance of setting objectives and sticking to them, Prof Pandita said that unless the training imparted to the resource persons (RPs) don’t yield the desired result on the ground, it would be no more than a wasteful activity.

“You’ve to ensure that a training which takes a lot of resources including funds, reaches its logical conclusion with regard to its implementation,” Prof. Pandita said. “This would invariably be your ultimate contribution to Education.”

Prof. Pandita, while cautioning against khanapurti culture, said the training should not be conducted for the mere heck of it.

“She stressed upon the HODs/Faculty of SCERT that Advisor to Hon’ble LG, Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary to Government School Education Department are very keen and particular about the outcome of the trainings, workshops and other activities including implementation of various initiatives of the MoE, Government of India towards qualitative improvement in the areas of school Education”.

“And therefore, it’s your duty to conduct surveys to verify as to whether the training imparted at SCERT/DIET Level have achieved the desired objectives at the grass root level.”

She asked the departmental heads to prepare various tools such as questionnaires and conduct field visits for effective implementations of the programs at grass root level. She directed the stakeholders at SCERT to devise a very strong monitoring mechanism and ensure accomplishment of the desired outcomes at ground level.

To assess the teachers’ performance with regard to the NISHTHA online courses, Prof. Pandita asked the NISHTHA Coordinator to develop specific assessment tools to conduct an empirical evaluation of the teachers in order to know that they have learnt what they were expected to learn from these ‘specially designed’ training courses under NISHTHA on DIKSHA portal.

“The teachers, after the completion of all the NISHTHA courses, are expected to have attained a specific understanding of things,” she said. “We’ll have their performance evaluated soon.”

Besides, she asked for a monthly progress report (MPR) from each department at the SCERT.

“All the departments should submit their MPR by the 3rd of every month punctually,” she said.

Prof Pandita, directed all the HODs/faculty members to make proper documentation of the events undertaken by them every month and desired that she will take next review meeting after 20 days, by that time every department shall put rigorous efforts and ensure performance of the defined roles and responsibilities in a very effective and efficient manner.

Be Part of Quality Journalism

Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast.

ACT NOW