Seminar For School Teachers
T.Padmanabhan, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai, speaking at the inauguration of a two-day seminar for school teachers in Coimbatore on Friday. Teachers need to evolve new teaching methodologies to attract youngsters to school, said T.Padmanabhan, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai here on Friday.
He was inaugurating a two-day seminar for school teachers on “Modern Educational Technology in the Teaching of Science” at the Dr.G.R.damodaran College of Eduaction,. Only seven per cent of the youth enrolled for higher education in the country. This was mainly because the traditional teaching methodology used at the higher secondary level was outdated or unsuitable to the present day classroom conditions, he observed.
The country at present had only 425 universities, he said. “If we need to increase the higher education enrolment rate to 15 per cent by 2015 as per the suggestion of the Knowledge and Education Commission, India needs to have at least 1,500 institutions of higher learning.” Alongside an increase in the number of institutions, the quality of instruction needed to be improved too. Population and information explosion had thrown up challenges in making education accessible to all, which could be solved only with the help of technology, especially in developing countries such as India. Universities should develop computer-related teaching practices and emphasis should be on online resources.
Interactive media should be employed in the process of instruction. Universities should also offer consultancy services to schools in matters related to technology-aided teaching. Computers could assist students to be independent learners. However, with the integration of technology in education, the role of the teacher was constantly undergoing changes. So were the habits of information gathering and structure of the learning environment. Hence, certain attitudinal adjustments were necessary at every level in order to make the new methodologies work better, Mr.Padmanabhan said.
