From May 8-28 and June 5-25, 2013, Department of Education organized two 21-day English Language Teaching Workshops for primary and secondary level teachers of Tibetan schools in India and Nepal.These workshops were conducted by the faculty members of the Department of Education in Languages, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. NCERT is the apex educational resource organization in India.

A total number of 55 English language teachers – 29 primary level teachers and 26 secondary level teachers – from Tibetan schools in India and Nepal benefitted from the two workshops. The TGT workshop was concluded on June 25, 2013. The valedictory function was chaired by Prof. Rajaram Sharma, Joint-Director of Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT. DoE’s Education Officers Mr. Tsering Phuntsok and Mr. Kalsang Wangdu also attended the valedictory session.

Based on the National Curriculum Framework – 2005, the two workshops dealt with the changing paradigms in the language education and sharing of the best pedagogical practices.Apart from discussing issues pertaining to teaching of various aspects of English language, the workshops stressed the new paradigms in language education such as Language Across Curriculum, Whole Language Approach, Meaning to Form Approach, Multilingualism as Resource, etc. Teachers are also exposed to the rich pool of children’s literature by visiting National Book Trust and Sahitya Akedemi.

Visitors to the workshops include Director of NCERT Prof. Parveen Sinclair, DoE Secretary Mr. Ngodup Tsering, Joint-Director of NCERT Prof B. K. Tripathi, Dean (Academic) of NCERT Prof. Hukum Singh, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi Mr. Tempa Tsering, and etc. The Tibet Education Project’sMonitoring and Evaluation Director Dr. Tsering Yankyi also visited NCERT to evaluate the two workshops.

These workshops were funded by USAID through The Tibet Fund.