Test for Ahmedabad teachers next year

All these years, Gujarat education board has been spending money and working out logistics to train around one lakh teachers of secondary and higher secondary schools through one of its training programs-Karmayogi. But has this general training made any difference to the teachers' skills in imparting knowledge to students?  

To answer this question and evaluate the impact of training provided to teachers, the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) is now mulling over one more test-Teachers' Need Assessment. The assessment will evaluate the impact of training programmes conducted for teachers so far and finding out loopholes in the system.

A senior GSHEB official said that they have signed an MoU with IL&FS Education to conduct the assessment in Gujarat. He said that the assessment would be through a test that would be conducted next year. 

"The decision comes as a reality check after conducting Karmayogi training programme for teachers. It is a very generalised way of training teachers and doesn't aim at improving specific skills of teachers. The assessment will point out requirements of teachers that need to be addressed in future training sessions," said the official. 

He said the focus would be on understanding if teachers are facing problems in pedagogy, theory knowledge or skills to teach students etc. He said the results of the test would be utilised to design future programmes. The test will have optical mark recognition (OMR) and test teachers' pedagogical skills, subject knowledge and general abilities, said the official.

"Once we have a list of a few areas where teachers needs more attention, it will help us design a training module with specific points. The issue with Karmayogi training is that it has a generalised module for all teachers," said the official.