Coronavirus: Kerala training 81,000 teachers in IT amidst COVID-19 outbreak

In light of school shutdowns as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, teachers in Kerala will be learning new methods and teaching technologies to help students continue their education without disruption. Though schools are closed, staff members are to be present at school.

The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) on Saturday, decided to provide IT training to about 81,000 primary teachers through focussed intervention.

"With all educational institutions now closed on account of preventive measures due to COVID-19 protocols, the online mode has been adopted and would be completed within five days by making effective use of all hi-tech facilities in schools," K. Anvar Sadath, Chief Executive Officer, KITE, told Edex Live.

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The training is to be conducted in three batches at about 1,000 centres, where each centre would have 25 teachers and two trainers. Each centre is equipped with high-tech facilities with all the necessary files and materials. The first part of this programme will be held from March 18 to 27 as an 'enjoy, enhance, and enrich English' programme to improve language efficiency.

KITE had earlier conducted a programme – the state’s first government-approved Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) – which benefited over 12,000 teachers. In a similar way, a login facility will be enabled on the Samagra portal, an online learning platform developed by the KITE.

“The special IT training has been arranged with the inclusion of necessary support files, video tutorials, resources, and so on in the teachers’ login on Samagra to ensure zero quality loss, along with requisite monitoring mechanisms such as accurate online attendance,” Sadath told The Hindu.

The teachers can participate through self-learning or through group study facilities. Essential support systems have been put in place to help these teachers – social media, video conferencing, and a help desk for clearing doubts.

Once the course is completed, the teachers have to systemise their training contents in a digital format on a daily basis, which will be inspected by their mentors along with the IT coordinators of the school.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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