51,000 Maharashtra school teachers to be skilled in spoken English

In a major English language training programme, over 51,000 teachers of Maharashtra government schools across 36 districts are being trained under Tejas – a tripartite teacher training project of the British Council, Tata Trusts and the state government.
It is estimated that the training programme will benefit over 1.5 million government school children by 2021.
At the launch of Tejas, Maharashtra’s School Education and Youth Welfare Minister Ashish Shelar said: “I am pleased at the positive impact of this unique partnership between Government of Maharashtra, Tata Trusts and British Council in terms of enhancing teacher’s curriculum delivery capacities and improving student learning outcomes.
“Our state government strives to provide the best of learning and development facilities to our dedicated teachers. Tejas is a significant step in this direction, leveraging technology to provide a collaborative learning platform to 51,000 teachers covering our Maharashtra state by 2021.”
British Council’s Director, West India, Helen Silvester said: “I am thrilled to launch the ‘Tejas stories of change’ book today. I have been really moved to see the stories of those who have benefited through this project. Working together with the Government of Maharashtra and Tata Trusts has been an incredibly rewarding and inspiring experience. Our classroom observations in 2018 show that over 75 percent of observed teachers used more English language and more interactive and learning centred techniques than at the start of the project, results which support the recommendations of the New Education Policy.”
“Tejas is an initiative for improving spoken English that rests crucially on the drive and dedication of the teachers participating in it. The programme is based on the model of ‘Communities of Practice’ enabling teachers to discuss classroom teaching under the guidance of a trained peer. This has led to the success of the programme and in turn successful outcomes for the children they teach. With the support of the Government of Maharashtra and the British Council we have been proud to enable this catalytic change in the communities we serve,” said Satyajit Salian, Head-Education, Tata Trusts.
IANS