Ms. Deepa Hamal, District Education Officer of Surkhet shares her views on Project NIITE in an interview with the British Council Nepal.
This is the second year of the NIITE training in Surkhet. What do you have to say about the outcome of this training?
Teachers in Surkhet district have benefited a lot from NIITE training. This training has provided teachers better skills to teach in the classroom. As a result, the demand for this training has been growing here. We have even been enquired from neighboring districts if the teachers from there can avail this training.
How do you see this training benefitting the teaching technique in classroom?
The teaching technique has changed. Since this training is all about teaching in the most practical manner by introduces games and other activities, we have seen children more involved in the classroom. This training has made learning fun by involving students directly with their teachers and has strengthened teacher-students relationship. This is one of the few trainings teachers have received, which is activity oriented.
Have you heard from any students or teachers on the change in teaching technique?
I haven’t had the opportunity of interacting with students about the new teaching technique but I have seen them more excited with their trained teachers. I have seen students excited in participating in classroom activities. About teachers, I have been getting all the positive response about the training. Like I mentioned before, many teachers who did not have the opportunity to get this training are now requesting for one.
Could you elaborate on your involvement/role in facilitating and promoting this training?
After we were told about this training, we held several meetings to ensure that these trainings are organized smoothly in Surkhet. One of the motivating factors for us is British Council has been assigning skilled trainers to conduct the trainings. This has given a lot of motivation to our teachers. As District Education Officer, I have made sure that all those teachers from several schools of Surkhet who are interested in getting this training get their chance to make the most out of it. I have also been working closely with my colleagues that we provide necessary resource centres to conduct the training. In collaboration with this training, the District Education Office is making sure that we do everything to make community schools provide teaching standards like that in the private schools and promote English medium teaching, promote teachers to develop their teaching skills.