British Council’s World Voice Project workshop concludes

GANGTOK, 12 Dec [IPR]: British Council’s three-day workshop on its Pilot Project World Voice Project (WVP) which got underway on 09 December in Janta Bhawan concluded yesterday.
The workshop saw the participation of primary school teachers from most of the government schools and others along with primary students from various government schools from the capital.
During the valedictory function on the third day, Minister for Human Resource Development Department (HRDD) NK Pradhan was present as the chief guest, the Chief Secretary, R Ongmu as the guest of honour along with officials from HRDD.
Addressing the valedictory function Minister Mr. Pradhan expressed his gratitude towards the British Council and the organizers for coming up with such a nice training for teachers and students of primary level where the basic idea is to choose a popular song or music from the region and use it as a tool and an instrument for learning.
Music gives such a positive vibe that learning through songs and music will definitely be fun for the children while it is a potent instrument and tool for teachers, he said. Even though it may be a little difficult to teach various subjects through popular local songs or song from different countries or other parts of India, it can be used as a very good tool for teaching, he stressed.
The Chief Secretary expressed hope that the trainee teachers will take what they have learnt in this workshop back to their schools and try and replicate it. She also thanked the organizers for coming up with such a beautiful idea.
Guests were also entertained by the songs used as a tool to learn various languages like English, Senegalese, Pahadi [Himachal Pradesh] which were sung by the students who participated in the workshop.
The chief guest also presented mementos to the resource persons; Indrajit Grover, Subanghi Tiwari and Shivani Rawat.
The resource persons from the British Council expressed their utmost joy and happiness for having such a receptive set of trainees and added that it was a wonderful experience working with the teachers and students of Sikkim.

Magazine on British Council’s educational project released at Namchi

NAMCHI, 27 Feb: Namchi cluster under United Kingdom India Education Research Initative (UKIREI) project organised a programme to release a magazine on the work and achievement of UKIERI project for Sikkim here at Namchi Senior Secondary School, South Sikkim today.
Chairman NMC, BT Tamang was present as the chief guest at the programme which was also attended by VC NMC, NH Ansari, JD (S) HRDD, Bimla Rai, Ex. JD, TB Rai, Principal NSSS, BR Rai, Heads of schools under Namchi cluster and the assistant teachers of UKIERI projects for Namchi cluster.
Addressing the occasion chief guest, BT Tamang congratulated all the teachers and the members associated in the project and also thanked Dr. Udida Bhutia for her initiative to bring such reforms in education system through this project. He further said that all the members associated with this project should continue their relationship with partner schools of England which was made during this project and learn from them and also give them the knowledge of our rich culture, customs, and traditions. The Chairman said that learning the English language and about the developed countries is important but we must also safeguard our regional language, customs and traditions.
JD (S), HRDD in her address said that UKIREI projects were beautiful projects that bring about huge change in the education system and in the teaching and learning process and also thanked Dr. Udida Bhutia for introducing the projects for the schools of South Sikkim. The projects had brought about a change in the classroom and in the perspectives and attitude of teachers along with the students in the Namchi cluster, she informed.
She further informed that under this project many teachers had gone to the partner schools in England where they learnt about their education system and teaching process and similarly teachers from England also came to visit the schools of Namchi and shared their experiences and knowledge giving birth to new aspirations, ideas and achievements, she added. She also urged all the school heads and teachers to continue their activities of the project though the tenure of the project had been completed and retain the good relation with their partner schools.
It may be mentioned here that the UKIERI project aims to facilitate the growth of cluster schools. It will provide a unique platform for the sharing of educational development and reform in school sectors in the UK and India through the provision of opportunities for professional development for teachers and heads of schools, and further avenues for policy dialogue, networking and sharing of good practices.
The whole project was financed by the British Council and under the initiative Dr. Udida Bhutia six schools; Namchi NSSS, NGSSS, Sadam SSS, Singithang PS, Gumpa Ghurpisey PS and JMK schools had been registered under Namchi Cluster in 2009 following which different activities, trainings and knowledge was shared during the three years of the project.
The programme was also addressed by Principal NSSS, BR Rai and during the programme the message of Dr. Udida Bhutia was readout by Asst. Teacher, Umima Bhutia while the welcome speech was delivered by Bindya R. Tanpa and vote of thanks was delivered by Karen Bhutia.

Singtam Govt School connects with UK school as part of British Council Project

SINGTAM, 21 Dec: Government Senior Secondary School, Singtam, is one of the 16 schools selected under the British Council Project. The Project was started in 2009 as an initiative taken under the guidance of the then Secretary, HRDD, R Telang and present Secretary, HRDD, CS Rao. The programme is funded by the UK government to “strengthen the concept of global village” and connect students of various countries wherein the British Council is working as the link. The main objective of the programme is to provide an opportunity for students here to understand students of the UK better from their own class rooms and develop a good relationship between the two countries.