Four districts 'Online Teachers' meet

 

 

Online Teachers meet.

Organized by: Assam State Initiative – Education

Centre for Microfinance & Livelihood (CML) supported by Tata Trusts.

Date: July 15, 202; Time: 11:00 am -2:15: pm

 

Objective:

1. To get engaged with teachers in online learning process for children.
2. Share our initiative in online process of reaching out to our target students.
3. To seek their suggestion and also to offer our support in reaching out the other students besides target students in those schools.

Invitation was sent to the teachers of all the 90 project schools under Assam State Initiative- Education (ASI-Edu) across the four intervention districts – Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Nalbari & Baksa. 30 - schools in Goalpara district, 30-schools in Bongaigaon district and 30-schools in Nalbari & Baksa districts together.

Besides the teachers from project schools, one teacher (as special guest) was also invited to share his experiences in online mode during this lockdown period to reach his students. A google meet link was shared with the teachers.

Invitation was also sent to Chief Operating Officer (COO), CML Mr. Sanjay Singh.

 

All together 51 teachers participated in the online meet from the four districts. Team members of ASI-Edu team of all the four districts also participated. Also participated by COO –CML Guwahati, Program Officer ASI- Edu and one specially invited teacher. The district wise participation of teachers and team members was as follows.

District	No of team members	No of Teachers
Goalpara	16	16
Nalbari & Baksa	15	20
Bongaigaon	16	29

The agenda of the meeting was as mentioned below-

1. Opening the meeting link 10 minutes prior to scheduled time.
2. Greeting all teachers on behalf of ASI-Edu, CML.
3. Self introduction of participating teachers.
4. Opening the meet and briefing by COO –CML, Guwahati.
5. Sharing our project objective and our achievement.
6. Teachers sharing their observation about the program in their schools.
7. Sharing online process and experience initiated by special guest teacher.
8. Sharing about online whatsapp group formed with the students and offering teachers our support and seeking their support.
9. Inviting teachers to workshop on ‘online content development’ organized by ASI-Edu, CML
10. Open discussion session.

As per the agenda, the meeting link was opened at 10:50 am, and discussion began at 11:00 am. All the participating teachers are greeted by – Kandarpa Kalita, Program Officer, ASI-Edu, CML. Followed by self introduction of teacher with their name and school beginning with the teachers first from Bogaigaon district, next Goalpara, followed by Nalbari and Baksa.

After the introduction was over, Mr. Sanjay Singh, COO- CML welcomed all the teachers to the meet. 

In brief he stated that, although lockdown has affected all and schools have been closed for more than 4-months in this academic session, but an effort of ASI-Edu team of all the four districts is a good initiative in carrying on the learning activities for the children. He also thanked ASI-Edu team in bringing the teachers of all four districts under one platform. He also thanked the teachers for responding to their effort by joining the meeting and said that today’s meet will be a fruitful one and such initiative should continue.

Next, shared about the ASI-Edu project by Kandarpa Kalita. The following have been shared-

1. Objective of the program, number of intervention districts, number of schools, target population and achievement so far.
2. Activities carried out under this project like – identification of school dropout children in different villages with the help of community members, organizing motivational camp for school dropout children, mainstreaming them and provide remedial support along with other children in school who are identified as lagging behind in their grade specific level.
3. Shared through some photograph the engagement with children through various ways besides regular teaching learning process, such as celebration of some state festivals, environment days etc.
4. Engaging with community, school management committee (SMC), mothers’ group.
5. Conducting teachers training and orientation of SMC with regard to the remedial support.

  

After presentation, Teachers’ shared their views on the ASI-Edu initiative. In total four teachers shared their views regarding the initiative with respect to our team’s engagement in schools and with children.

Mr. Shamim Rana Head Teacher, SNM Dumuria ME Madrasa, Bongaigaon, said that he is happy with the initiative of ASI-Edu program for bringing back school dropout children. He said that he supports our ASI-Edu team in all activities and mentioned one important thing that was remarkable. That the field team, Education Facilitator (EF) assigned for remedial support for children in his school visits every alternate day. He wants if it can be made daily basis. Here it to be noted that all the EFs are allotted two schools where he/she has to provide remedial support. Our EFs visit those two schools every alternate day. According to the Head Teacher Mr. Shamim Rana, the children are more attentive on the day when our EF visits his school. So he wanted our EF to visit regularly in school instead of alternate days.

 

Mr. Sirkhat Hissain, Head Teacher, Dumuria Piknapara LP school welcomed the initiative of ASI-Edu, and said that many children are benefited through this initiative. His remark and observation about the program are as follows-

1.  Many children are benefitted in this area which has mostly economically marginalized people.
2. Effort to reach out to children through online mode is good.
3. Need a little improvement in quality of online content, he himself being an online content developer. He also suggested aligning the online contents with the learning outcomes.
4. EFs may require one compatible mobile handset in the effort of reaching out to the children via online mode.  As the remuneration of the EFs is not much, it will be good if one good mobile handset is provided to them from the organization.

 

Ms. Tulika Senapati Rabha, Heat Teacher, Mogho Balachari Govt. JBS, Goalpara, expressed her thanks to the team and she is happy that her school is also a part of this ASI-Edu program. She is quite happy with the engagement of EFs in schools. She said that our EFs supported the children in her schools during school days and is also aware that EFs are in continue touch with the children via online mode during this lockdown period. She also observed closely the activities organized during the motivational camp and the information shared with the children during motivational camp. One example she shared and expressed her happiness for bringing the local Padmashree Award nominee - Birubala Rabha from Goalpara district, to the motivational camp to speak to the children. Birubala Rabha is nominated for her role in creating awareness against superstitions prevailing among the community in the area. Bringing her to speak to the children in the motivation camp will give motivation to the children who otherwise may remain unknown among children.

 

Mr. Paban Kr. Das, Head Teacher, 2 No. Arara LP school, Nalbari district says that due to the effort of EFs, the children who remained absent from school are now showing interest to come to school. He said that, children are benefitted from motivational camp, more children want to be part of it. He knows that motivational camp is for the school dropout children, but as it is conducted in interesting way, it would be good to have such camp for other children of the school because, according to him, parents as well as children come to him to say why some children are deprived from attending the motivational camp.

 

Mr. Magbul Hussain, Head Teacher, Salmara Milan ME school, Baksa district, also expressed his thanks to the team in their efforts and kind of support being provided in the school for the children. One important thing mentioned by him is that- he was not much familiar with online mode. Now, he has learned through the support of our EF. He has now started online process of reaching out the children in his school, made a whatsapp group and use the content developed by our team.

 

After sharing of teachers from the project schools from different district, time was provided to the specially invited teacher Mr. Girindra Kashyap, Head Teacher, Golia Prathamik Vidyalaya, Nalbari. He shared his success story  through his effort to bring change in his school. Initially, there were 20 children when he joined the school. But his efforts and proper engagement with community has increased enrolment up to 60 now. He continuously engages with community and says that only working in school will not yield result. In his school he emphasis not only on ‘what is taught’ but ‘what the children have learned’ at the end. Therefore, he provides more opportunities to children on exploring by themselves. He keeps the last period of daily routine to recollect the day’s learning and the period is named as ‘what we have learned today’. He regularly make home visits to children along with his colleague.  According to him, it helps the children in focusing on learning and bring awareness among the parents and community members.

Once the teachers shared their views, it was announced to the teacher that a workshop on online content development is being organized by ASI-Edu, CML in the following week.  It is open for all the teachers and invited them to join and requested their participation.

 

After that, session was opened for open discussion, during this period, not many teachers spoke, only a few teachers spoke mostly to say thanks for organizing this kind of program.

 

At the end, on behalf of ASI-Edu team, the host thanked the participating teachers and said this kind of platform is helpful not only to the team of ASI-Edu but it provides a common platform to come together.

Expressing thanks to the teachers for their suggestions which are valuable for us, the program concludes.