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Lighthouses
On The Horizon
Lighthouse
2
The Teachers of Tomorrow
 Ask anyone what has made the most significant difference in their learning, and the invariable response is “A great teacher”.
The less heartening reality is that a large part of India’s 2 million teachers enter the profession because they have no other career choice. Most of them have inadequate, or substandard training. Almost all of them are poorly paid. Hardly the circumstances that make for a motivated person. Or an inspiring person.
Private and academia-led initiatives have recognised this, and are trying to break the impasse in teacher development. The challenge has two faces:
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How will we get attract talented young people and train them to be professional educators?
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What can be done to renew the motivation and skills of the millions of teachers who are already teaching in our schools?
The Bachelor in Elementary Education (B.El.Ed) program of the Delhi University is a brave effort to create a high quality preparatory program for teachers of young children. Since its inception in 1998, the B.El.Ed program has already graduated over 1000 teachers who are highly inspired to take on teaching, are deeply aware of the fundamentals of education and have solid grounding in innovative classroom practices. Students interact with scholars and practitioners, work in internships in real school settings and are taught a modern syllabus that includes latest research on teaching and learning. The B.El.Ed program along with many newer efforts are bringing fresh new blood into a domain that has till now been served by 3000 odd B.Ed colleges whose stale curriculum and methods had reduced pre-service teacher education to a rubber stamp.
As for rejuvenating the existing teaching force in schools, Wipro CEO Aziz Premji decided to take matters into his own hands by launching an initiative called Wipro Applying Thought in Schools (WATIS) (See box on next page)
Gen Next teachers will surely be of a different DNA - with an uncommon willingness to learn and innovate, and with the emotional skill to connect and collaborate with children and other adults in school.
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