Training quality elementary education teachers can ensure quality education to children in classrooms

Updated on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

As the deadline for the implementation of the RTE Act approaches , educators and experts in the field feel that we are still far from the goal. The answer, most believe, lies in training quality elementary education teachers who can ensure that quality education is provided to children in classrooms.

At a time when we need more trained teachers, a Bachelor of elementary education could be the answer . As Kakoli Dey, assistant professor, department of B El Ed, Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University, explains, "The four-year Bachelor of elementary education our college offers, prepares teachers on various processes in education, understanding the child, developing child centred relevant education and developing professionalism."

This course, she adds, is designed to encourage students to reflect on the content of different subjects from different perspectives including human development , pedagogical knowledge and communicative skills in an interdisciplinary manner. The programme engages students in ideas of education that include the most important of thinkers and theorists both Western and Indian. This helps students in re-thinking education and formulating practices that helps any kind of child, especially those that form the margins and who have access only to the government school system," says Dey.

The four-year B EL ED programme is bilingual (English and Hindi) and interdisciplinary . It offers a wide range of subjects from sociology, psychology and philosophy of education as well as core areas such as school planning and management, gender etc. It also allows students to develop an independent understanding of subject areas in terms of their nature and history as well as theoretical formulation of pedagogy in all areas such as mathematics, language, history, environmental studies and natural science . "There are various colloquia that deal with various discussions of being a teacher, including children's literature. Children's literature helps students gain critical understanding of literature published for children and their usage in language development . Theatre, craft and physical education are other such colloquia where body, mind and expressions are explored to enable the student to deal with learners in an integrated way. Field visits to educational settings constitute an important part of the course."

Training quality elementary education teachers can ensure quality education to children in classrooms

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