BIR: Kalon Dr. Pema Yangchen, Department of Education, CTA inaugurated the second series of Early Grade Reading (EGR) workshop for school heads from 19th to 22nd June. This was her maiden visit to Bir and Kalon was welcomed by the settlement officers of Bir Dege and BTS. She also visited Sambhota Tibetan School, Bir and had a chance to interact with the children.

 

The four-day workshop is being organized by the Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration, funded by USAID. The 20 school heads are from TCV, STS and THF Mussorie. The EGR experts are Ms. Manisha Chaudhry, Ms. Deepti Srivastav, Mr. Gurjot Singh Sidhu, Mr. Surendra Prasad Singh and Mr. Tushar Tamhane from Ignus Pahal group.

 

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Chief Guest Kalon Dr. Pema Yangchen, accompanied by Ms. Tashi Diki, Deputy Secretary, DoE spoke about importance of Early Grade Reading (EGR) workshop for school heads as well as teachers. She commended and thanked them for their leadership and service. Talking about leadership qualities of effective school heads, she emphasized on how they must be ‘instructional leaders.’ She added, “Research says that effective principals/school heads encourage and guide professional learning. They encourage collaboration and collegiality among teachers and play a major role in building a community of teachers who are capable of delivering effective instruction to every student.”

 

Kalon further explained that as instructional leaders, they must have a deeper understanding of the teaching and learning process. Sharing findings from a research article, she talked about how school heads could support instruction, support teachers and in turn improve learning. She urged school heads to spend more time in the classrooms observing teachers’ work offering constructive feedback and instructional guidance. She emphasized the need for school heads to keep themselves abreast of research-based strategies to ensure quality instruction. In her concluding remarks, Kalon said that both school heads and teachers must work collaboratively as a team, respect each other, and create a caring learning atmosphere for all stakeholders.

 

The Department of Education is organizing two consecutive EGR workshops in Bir. The Early Grade Reading Remedial workshop for thirty Primary teachers was held from 16 to 18 June and from 19 to 22 June 2018 for school heads. The Department of Education has given EGR training to over 500 Primary teachers in the last four years with follow-up visits of the resource person in the schools.

 

Based on assessment and monitoring in the schools, DOE decided to hold this workshop for school heads this year to educate the school heads to enable them to support children and teachers at Primary level in an effective manner. A similar workshop will be conducted in Bylakuppe in the next couple of months for the Primary teachers and school heads of South Zone.