National Consultation on Improving Teaching Techniques of Indian TVET School Teachers

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), the regional centre of Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) organised a National Consultation on Course Development for “Improving Teaching Techniques of TVET School Teachers” on 19-20 December 2022 at DELNET Campus in Delhi, India.

The consultation aimed at understanding the key challenges and requirements in the delivery of vocational courses/programmes from the perspective of vocational school educators, and creating an online self-learning programme to upskill them with relevant skills to improve their teaching techniques and pedagogy.

The consultation started with the introduction of all participants and their expectations from the consultation.

In his welcome address, Dr. B. Shadrach, Director, CEMCA, highlighted the transformation that vocational education would undergo with the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The Policy stresses on the integration of vocational education programmes into mainstream education in all education institutions in a phased manner, and vocational teachers are going to play a critical role in it. Hence, they require continuous professional development for improving their pedagogical skills.

Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director, CBSE, while addressing the participants, gave emphasis on the need of streamlining vocational education and endorsed NEP2020 in providing a platform to recognise vocational subjects and educators.

Mr. Saurabh Mishra, Programme Officer-Skills, CEMCA, provided an overview of consultation context and objectives. Dr. Swati Gupta, Deputy Director-Skill Education, CBSE, talked about why a multi- disciplinary or inter-disciplinary approach is vital for igniting creativity in the students, and how vocational education and educators can contribute to it.

The consultation was attended by 52 TVET teachers from various states across the country. It was highly participatory in nature using open house and group discussion formats, and provided ample opportunities to each and every participant to contribute to the development of the outline of the course on “Improving Teaching Techniques of TVET School Teachers”.