NESTS, Tribal Affairs and CBSE launch Experiential Learning for 21st Century Programme for EMRS principals and teachers

NESTS, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and CBSE in collaboration with TATA trusts, TISS and MGIS launched Experiential Learning for 21st Century Programme for Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) Principals and Teachers virtually today.

Shri Asit Gopal , Commissioner, National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS), Ministry of Tribal Affairs inaugurated the programme and announced formal launch of course-2 for EMRS teachers & teacher leaders. While addressing the participants, the Commissioner, remarked that the importance of continuous professional development trainings is emphasized in NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY- 2020 which is a landmark policy document. He added “It is believed that this program is unique in the area of experiential learning pedagogy and will be instrumental in advancing the cause of the National Education Policy, 2020 as part of their Continuous Professional Development (CPD).”

In first phase, the program was launched on 20th November, 2021 for 350 teachers from CBSE and Eklavya Model Residential Schools located in 6 States, namely Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

In the second phase, the 8-week professional development training programme is targeted to include 300 teachers from EMRSs across the states including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand besides previously included states.

The Experiential Learning for 21st Century Programme has been conceptualized as an online programme for educators ie teachers and principals to help them adapt classroom learning to real life experiences. The program was offered free of cost to all the selected teachers and principals from November, 2021 till April, 2022. The selected teachers were trained as “Teacher Leaders” who shall be espousing the Experiential Learning Pedagogy to all EMRS teaching fraternity in a phased manner.

The course was curated in consultation with the faculty from TISS and MGIS to incorporate theoretical and practitioner perspectives of experiential learning for teachers. It is an 8 week program covering 4 modules supported with virtual webinars to discuss the teachers’ understandings and assist them along the course learnings. Webinars shall provide further orientation on the pedagogy focusing on project mapping and lesson planning. This course is conceived and will be executed on the lines of the co-creative experiential learning. The journey of the Teachers selected for this course will emulate the learning that we wish the students to experience in their day to day classes, with hands-on activities based on meaningful, real life situations and projects.

(With Inputs from PIB)