Nagpur: The state government has prohibited conduct of education-related trainings, campaigns and surveys by local authorities unless pre-approved the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
The state wants to end the ‘unregulated’ involvement of NGOs, edtech companies etc in organizing training or distribution of e-learning material at local level, as it may not be aligned with Maharashtra’s overall education plan.
A circular dated February 24, signed by SCERT director MD Singh, has been dashed off to all district collectors, municipal commissioners and zilla parishad chief executive officers in which it’s mentioned that no such activity can now be allowed under their jurisdiction.
SCERT is the apex body in state for planning and implementing training of teachers, among many other related activities.
SCERT states that of late many NGOs, edtech firms and influential persons are getting in touch with local officials and organizing teacher training camps/seminars. The state council adds that non-government stakeholders may have a commercial interest in promoting such activities, and that cannot be allowed.
The circular also raises the serious issue of privacy of students, who would be the end-user of e-learning material distributed by these edtech companies. SCERT points out the advertisement link embedded there and also says the later misuse of students/parents’ data cannot be ruled out.
Another problem that SCERT has noticed is that when such educational training events happen in various districts, alignment to state’s plan is missing. Different methodologies are used by different organizers and SCERT says this “ultimately leads to chaos among students”.
It has also calculated the working hours lost due to such unauthorised training sessions. “If a teacher has 30 students and classes are for six hours, then 180 man-hours are being deployed. If the teacher is away for two-day training, then 360 man-hours have been lost and students suffer,” cites the circular.
So to ensure uniformity in educational training, permission for conducting any event now has to be taken from SCERT. This will obviously throw a spanner in the works for those NGOs and edtech companies which till now had almost unhindered access to state board schools.
A school principal said, “This is a good decision. We were also fed up of our teachers being required to attend trainings and seminars by NGOs.”
The state wants to end the ‘unregulated’ involvement of NGOs, edtech companies etc in organizing training or distribution of e-learning material at local level, as it may not be aligned with Maharashtra’s overall education plan.
A circular dated February 24, signed by SCERT director MD Singh, has been dashed off to all district collectors, municipal commissioners and zilla parishad chief executive officers in which it’s mentioned that no such activity can now be allowed under their jurisdiction.
SCERT is the apex body in state for planning and implementing training of teachers, among many other related activities.
SCERT states that of late many NGOs, edtech firms and influential persons are getting in touch with local officials and organizing teacher training camps/seminars. The state council adds that non-government stakeholders may have a commercial interest in promoting such activities, and that cannot be allowed.
The circular also raises the serious issue of privacy of students, who would be the end-user of e-learning material distributed by these edtech companies. SCERT points out the advertisement link embedded there and also says the later misuse of students/parents’ data cannot be ruled out.
Another problem that SCERT has noticed is that when such educational training events happen in various districts, alignment to state’s plan is missing. Different methodologies are used by different organizers and SCERT says this “ultimately leads to chaos among students”.
It has also calculated the working hours lost due to such unauthorised training sessions. “If a teacher has 30 students and classes are for six hours, then 180 man-hours are being deployed. If the teacher is away for two-day training, then 360 man-hours have been lost and students suffer,” cites the circular.
So to ensure uniformity in educational training, permission for conducting any event now has to be taken from SCERT. This will obviously throw a spanner in the works for those NGOs and edtech companies which till now had almost unhindered access to state board schools.
A school principal said, “This is a good decision. We were also fed up of our teachers being required to attend trainings and seminars by NGOs.”