Excellence in Teacher Education

A one day UGC sponsored seminar on “Excellence in Teacher Education” was organized at MIER College of Education in January 2007. The aim of the seminar was to highlight the need for improving the quality of teacher education so that the system of education as a whole be improved. The seminar, distributed over four sessions during which 11 papers were presented, was attended by more than 60 experts drawn from different colleges of education.

The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. Arun K. Gupta, Director MIER, who in his presidential address, stressed upon the need for ensuring quality teacher education in the state of J&K by adopting appropriate training and monitoring processes. He cautioned against compromising quality at the cost of quantity. Welcoming the eminent guests, Dr. Renu Gupta, Principal MIER College of education, elaborated upon the processes, the college had to undergo to attain ISO 9001:2000 Certification and NAAC accreditation. She further said that the college is marching ahead to create a culture of quality and excellence.

Prominent scholars namely Dr. Arun K. Gupta, Dr. Lokesh Kaul, Dr. N.R. Sharma, Prof. K.B. Sethi, Dr. J.N. Baliya, Dr. Ashok Pandita, Dr. Surinder Kaur, Dr.Usha Kaul, Dr. Kajal Manhas, Dr. Renu Gupta, Mr. Sushil Padha, Ms Sivani Pathania, Sh. S.K. Pathania, Dr. D.R. Kapoor, Sh. Adit Gupta and Sh. Mool Raj Sharma presented technical papers. The papers are being complied in the form of a book.

Women Empowerment: Challenges & Future Strategies

A one day seminar cum workshop on “ Women Empowerment: Challenges and Future Strategies “ was organized at MIER College of Education in March 2007. During the three technical sessions, the following issues were discussed

i) Empowerment of Women in Different Areas

ii) Challenges Being Faced by Women in the Process of Empowerment.

iii) Strategies for Women Empowerment .

Dr. Renu Gupta, Principal MIER College of Education, in her welcome address threw light on the need to empower women. Dr. Arun Gupta in his key note address said that the process of empowerment should start by providing opportunities and equal rights to women with equity to unfold their capabilities. In her inaugural speech, the Chief Guest Mrs. T. Angmo, Station Director AIR and Director Doordarshan, described MIER group of Institutes as a leader in the field of education in Jammu and praised the initiative of the college in going into such fine details of this important and burning issue. In the valedictory session, Dr. Pam Rajput, National Consultant UGC, was the Chief guest while Dr. Meenakshi Kilam, Director Quality Assurance Cell, Jammu University and Dr. Poonam Dhawan, Director of the Centre for Women Studies, Jammu University were the guests of honour.

Connecting Human Knowledge with deep Intelligence

As a part of Extension lecture series in the College, Dr. Andrew Seaton consultant in Education, Change and Deep Intelligence in Melbourne, Australia delivered a lecture on the concept of “ Human Knowledge and Deep Intelligence: Transition to Connectedness” in November, 2007. Dr. Seaton is a life member of All India Association for Educational Research and Australian Association for Research in Education.

Dr. Renu Arun, Principal MIER College of Education presided over the lecture while Dr. Sunil Behari Mohanty, General Secretary AIAER was the Guest of Honour.
In his lecture, Dr. Seaton emphasized that in addition to analytic capabilities, human beings have the ability to transcend and resonate with the energies in the cosmic world and create things for their betterment. He also referred to certain stress releasing techniques to enable individuals live more peacefully. Dr. Seaton noted that by following the principles of deep intelligence, a teacher could combine the academic and emotional abilities to increase his stability, productivity and satisfaction levels. The deliberation ended with an interactive session in which the teacher trainees participated enthusiastically.

Successful Implementation of Inclusive Education: How?

A one day workshop on the theme, “Successful Implementation of Inclusive Education: How?” in collaboration with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), New Delhi and RCI Zonal Coordination Committee, Ludhiana was organized in December, 2007 at MIER College. Mrs. Sara Johnson, Chairperson RCI Zonal Coordination Committee, Dr. Ketaki Bardalai, Advisor RCI, Dr. Hemlata of Media Labs Asia, Dr. Madhu Singh, Principal MC Khalsa College of Education and more than 60 representatives of Social Welfare Department, NGOs, media personalities and educationists attended the workshop.

Mr. N.K.Verma (IAS), Secretary Social Welfare Department was the Chief Guest while Mr. A.K.Raina, Director School Education Jammu was Chief Guest at the valedictory session. Mr. Verma in his inaugural address acknowledged the growing need for inclusive education and also explained the role of Government and allied agencies in bringing the differently abled children under the purview of education so as to enable them to live comparatively normal lives. Mr. Verma also appreciated the laudable efforts of MIER in becoming the first institute in J&K to enter the field of inclusive education and for preparing teachers for differently abled students.

Mrs. Sara Johnson elaborated the objectives and activities of the RCI Zonal Coordination Committee and also appreciated the work being done by MIER. Dr. Arun K.Gupta, Director MIER in his keynote presentation stated that the people of J&K State are gradually becoming aware about issues related to Inclusive Education. However, a lot requires to be done in the direction of identification, enrollment, assessment, coverage, retention and development of differently abled children and steps should be taken to have appropriate programme for their education and rehabilitation.

The workshop was conducted in three sessions on the themes “ The Scenario of Disability and Scope of Inclusive Education in J&K”, “ Role of Educators and NGOs in promoting Inclusive Education” and “ Role of Technology and Media”. Ms. Ketaki Bardalai, Dr. D.R.Kapoor, Mr. C.S.Ravindran, Mr. Adit Gupta, Mr. Rajendra Parveen, Dr. Madhu Singh, Dr. Ashwani Jojra, Mr. J. S. Chauhan and Dr. Hemlata acted as resource persons for the sessions. The workshop proved to be highly successful. Several recommendations emerged from the discussion. These pertain to provision of barrier free environments; sensitization of teachers, parents, students; provision of equipment, apparatus and learning material, use of modern aids and technological support; training of teachers and encouraging the children with different needs to benefit from inclusive education.

Sh. H.L. Gupta Memorial Lecture

In the H.L. Gupta memorial lecture series, the lecture for the year 2007 was delivered at Model Institute of Education and Research by Justice A.S. Anand former Chief Justice of India and former Chairperson of Human Rights Commission on “Judicial Activism and Self Restraint” The memorial lecture was presided over by His Excellency Lt. Gen.(Retd). S.K. Sinha, PVSM, Hon'ble Governor, Jammu & Kashmir State. While delivering the lecture Justice Anand paid rich homage to Founder MIER Late Sh. H. L. Gupta (1912-1983) whom he described as a teacher par excellence, a great educationist and above all a great human being and who changed the destinies of students who came in his contact.

Justice Anand while speaking on the topic “Judicial Activism and Self Restraint” said that for the progress of the nation, all the three coordinate organs of the state that is Legislature, Executive and Judiciary are to function in complete harmony. He further said that the function of the Judiciary is not to set itself in opposition to the policy and politics of the majority rule, but to test the validity and constitutionality of the actions of the state and a Judicial decision either “stigmatizes or legitimizes” a decision of the Legislature or of the Executive. In either case the court neither approves nor condemns any legislative policy, nor is it concerned with its wisdom or expediency. Its concern is merely to determine whether the legislation is in conformity with or contrary to the provisions of the constitution. Justice Anand summed up by saying that it is mainly the expanded role and more particularly the expansion of the jurisdictional limits of the courts exercising judicial review, which has been given the title of “Judicial Activism”.

In his presidential remarks His Excellency Lt.Gen. (Retd) S.K.Sinha, described Late Professor H.L. Gupta as a dedicated and foresighted educationist. Gen. Sinha complimented Justice Anand for delivering a very lucid and absorbing lecture on a topic of great interest to the Country particularly when the roles of Judiciary, Legislature and executive are in sharp focus.

Earlier welcoming the dignitaries Dr. Arun K. Gupta, Director MIER described Dr. Anand as a top luminary, a custodian of Human rights and dignity, an accomplished author and a highly decorated son of the Dogra Land. He also complimented Justice Anand to have agreed to be the patron of the Alumni Association, which was launched to synchronize with the memorial lecture.

Intel Training Programme

Appreciating the importance of information and communication technologies in teacher education, the faculty of the MIER College underwent a 15 days training programme for using ICT in teaching learning in December, 2007. The programme was organized in collaboration with Intel Education under their Intel Teach Programme being coordinated by the University of Jammu. Earlier two faculty members from MIER College namely Mr. Mool Raj Sharma and Ms. Monika Mahajan were trained as Master trainers at the University . The workshop was inaugurated by Prof. Lokesh Verma, Head, Post-Graduate Department of Education, Jammu University.

Prof. Verma congratulated the management of the College for organizing this programme and highlighted the importance of ICT for the teacher educators. He expressed that teachers in the information age need to be equipped with the modern tools of teaching to benefit the learner and bring about an improvement in the teaching learning process. He also emphasized that ICT alone would help in the professional development of the teachers. Dr. Verma appreciated the ICT infrastructure setup in the college and the manner in which the teachers were using the same in their teaching activities.

Dr. Arun Gupta, Director MIER addressed the participants and motivated them to adopt ICT in a big way in the day to day teaching learning process as this would help them in preparing teachers of the future who will be ready to go and teach using modern technologies to students in schools at various levels. He also emphasized that ICT is one of the important tools for creating an effective teacher and also helps in improving the attitude and achievement level of the students.
During this training programme, the teachers improved upon their skills for using computers. They learnt the technique of preparing their lessons and making power point presentations. The feedback from the training programme was positive as it helped in improving the competence and confidence levels of the teachers in the use of modern ICT tools.