A Journey of Opportunities in India

Last month I flew to India and had the magnificent opportunity of organizing field visits in Delhi and Haryana together with the Embassy of Israel and local colleagues. The visits were diverse and fascinating, providing an interesting snap shot of Indian education and its challenges. The visits included a government funded girl’s school; The National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT); and meeting with the State Council of Education, Government of Haryana. The above agenda exposed the team to micro (school level) and macro (state and national level) challenges.

The action plan of the visit was to develop a dialogue with relevant stakeholders in India to map out tailored solutions in various fields of expertise and more.

MASHAV alumni planned the schedule: Mr. Sudhir Bhatnagar, CEO of the Society for All Round Development (SARD), an NGO focusing on educational issues and Mr. Parmod Kumar, Regional Program Officer of the Ministry of Education led this effort along with potential partners for future projects.

Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Government Funded Girl’s School, Dwarka

The school is very large, and operates with two shifts per day. Around 4,000 girls learn in each shift. It is the first school in the west zone of Delhi that established a unique child friendly ICT (Information Communication & Technology) Laboratory to enhance the learning of the children with able support from SARD.

Ms. Sangeeta Deswal,Principal, welcomed us and showed us the school. The focus of this visit was to learn about the way they teach Science and Technology. We learned about the methodologies and approach they use. Ms. Annu Jha from SARD shared some of the contents and ideas they developed, part of which she brought from her training course at the A.Ofri International Training Center.

NCERT, Digital India in the Field of Education

NCERT, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, is an organization set up by the Government of India, to assist and advise the central and state governments on academic matters related to school education. They oversee 1.5 million Schools with 7 million teachers. NCERT is responsible for designing the content for textbooks and lead the Education Segment under “Digital India”.

Our Delegation visited CIET, the Central Institute of Educational Technology, which is a constituent of NCERT and is the premiere national institute of educational technology. Its major aim is to promote the utilization of educational technologies such as radio, TV, films, satellite communications and cyber media separately and combined. The institute undertakes activities to widen educational opportunities, promote equality and improve quality of educational processes at the school level.

This professional visit was extremely interesting because we saw how India is dealing with their own challenges and developing their own solutions. I believe Israel can provide an innovative approach, which can easily assist in some of the processes this diverse and fascinating country is already undergoing.

State Council of Education, Government of Haryana

We visited two more institutes in Gurgaon, Haryana.The first visit was to DIET Gurgaon - District Institute of Education & Training. This institute was created as a third tier of training and resource support structure, right at the district level, in order to improve the quality of basic education. The establishment of DIET was based on the recommendations of the National Education Policy 1986.

Sh. Mukesh Lawania, the Principal of the institution, welcomed us. His staff briefly explained about their main objective, which is to focus on preparing master trainers and resource persons to guide and train the teachers who are working in primary and upper primary schools. After that we met with future teachers who complete their training at this institute and I had the great opportunity to speak with them.

The second visit was to the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Haryana . Established in April 1979, it was the conglomeration of State Institute of Education and State Institute of Science, to provide new dimensions to school education. Some of their main activities are in-service training to teachers and head masters, content development and data research. At this institute, Director Dr. Sneh Lata welcomed us. After visiting the different departments, we met some of the educators who participated of the activities taking place that day. This visit was important to get a grasp of the type of activities this kind of state center does and to listen to the point of view of the educators, about what they view as India’s challenges. The opportunities are endless and the challenges are fascinating. The field visits were an introduction to India’s education world and a closer look into the system. New channels are opened, and collaboration is the way.

Special thanks to Mr. Sudhir Bhatnagar, CEO, and Ms. Annu Jha, from SARD; Mr. Parmod Kumar, Regional Program Officer of the Ministry of Education of India; and Israeli embassy team.