Radio Education Discussed in SCERT’s 3-Day Orientation Program

80 teachers prepared 380 radio classes during Covid lockdown in 2021: Official

Farooq Shah

SRINAGAR: Around the time schools in Kashmir were closed due to the covid-19 lockdown, some eighty teachers from all the districts of the valley took up the mantle of responsibility in their hands and set the gears and pulleys of the education machinery into motion making the impossible possible. In a span of four months during this year, All India Radio (AIR) broadcast some 380 radio classes prepared by these teachers.

Javid Hussain Kirmani, who organised a three-day orientation program on teaching through electronic media at the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) Srinagar, informed a gathering of resource persons here today. The resource persons have been participating in radio classes for well over a period of two years now.

Eminent media persons including Riyaz Masroor, Special Correspondent, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Syed Humayun Qaiser, Ex Director AIR, Kashmir and Talha Jahangir, Program Executive AIR, Kashmir also participated in the event. 

Kirmani, who works at the SCERT Srinagar, is in charge of the radio lessons.

 “Though a daunting challenge, the commitment and the courage of the teachers made it look like a simple task,” he said. “With no prior experience of conducting such classes, I’d say our teachers did fairly well.”

The teachers, Kirmani said, were encouraged to record the lessons on their mobile phones within the confines of their own homes.

 “They’d send the recorded lectures to me and I’d forward them to the concerned official at the radio station,” Kirmani said. “The arrangement worked well and soon a team was formed.”

Since the team lacked the nuances of preparing the lessons, we felt the need to enhance their skills via an orientation program.

 “It was encouraging that media persons like Riyaz Masroor, Humayun Qaiser and Talha Jahangir consented to participate in an event of such importance,” Kirmani remarked. “We could have not asked for a better team than this to make our resource more useful should an emergency of a similar nature arise in the future.”

While appreciating the newly launched education policy aka NEP 2020 for its ‘flexibility’, Riyaz Masroor said there is a need to shun phobias of every nature to cultivate novel ideas.

 “Sadly, making mistakes is still considered a taboo in our learning system,” Masroor said. “It’s in fact the mistakes that lay a strong foundation towards learning things in a broader sense.”

While describing radio as an ‘outdated’ tool in the modern era driven by internet technology, Masroor said a major chunk of our population especially in the rural areas still rely on classic tools such as a radio.

 “Radio, as an education tool, should only be employed under extraordinary situations, such as, the lack of internet,” he said. “We must embrace newer technologies to enable a student to assume a greater role in the learning process.”

Syed Humayun Qaiser elaborated on education through radio and explained most of the broadcasting principles.

“It is the broadcaster's job to convey proper information to the audience,” he said. “More the commitment and interest with which this is done, the more successful it will become.”

The success of a class, Qaiser said, depends on the extent of his preparedness more so when radio is the medium.

Noted broadcaster, Talha Jahangir, while underlining the role of the radio in education, stressed upon the relationship between a teacher and a pupil in his typical way.

 “A teacher should be ready to drop himself to the level of the pupil,” Jahnagir said. “The content in radio classes should be absolutely straightforward and simple.”

Director School Education Kashmir, Dr Tasaduq Hussain Mir, who was the chief guest at the closing ceremony, said it has become very important to bring teachers in line with the modern-day requirements as the technology is developing very fast.

 “It is necessary to keep ourselves up-to-date,” he said. “Amid a host of means available to a child nowadays, it becomes more important that a teacher updates himself with the most updated concept on a topic.”
Dr. Rabia Naseem, academic officer, SCERT, gave a detailed lecture on the importance of correct pronunciation while speaking on the radio. Dr. Jan Mudassir Gul, academic officer, gave valuable tips with regard to writing the script for a radio program.

Sheikh Gulzar Ahmed, academic officer, SCERT, highlighted the educational requirements of the 21st century.

The program ended with the distribution of certificates among the participants.

3-Day Stress Management Workshop Concludes At SCERT

SRINAGAR: A three-day stress management workshop organised by the Health, Physical Education, Guidance and Counselling Wing of the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in collaboration with Art Education and Vocational Education concluded here on Wednesday.

Representatives from all the 10 District Institutes of Education (DIET), faculty members of the SCERT and many students attended the workshop.

Social activist and former civil servant, Ms Roma Wani, who was the chief guest at the event, painstakingly deliberated over the issue for all the three days of the workshop.

Despite her frailty, Ms Wani displayed intense liveliness about the subject and conducted several sessions before and after the lunch break. She answered all the queries of the participants with patience and affection bewitching the audience.

"Stress is a part of life and it must be braved with utmost courage and patience," Wani said. "The easiest way to deal with stress is to shrug it off with a smile. Living in the moment is the key to time management."

She said it is important to be content with what you have rather than craving for something beyond reach.

"Contentment is a state of being satisfied with one's current situation," Wani said. "A sense of contentment automatically generates happiness thereby allowing no room for stress to develop."

She also gave the audience valuable tips to manage time.

"Setting up priorities and chalking out time-bound plans makes tasks easier to handle," she said. "Decisions, once taken, must not be regretted."

Others who spoke on the occasion included Peerzada Bashir Ahmad, Dr Parvez Sajad, Mohammad Amin Beigh, Mudasira Yaseen, Tariq Manzoor Khan, Dr Nazneen, Dr Rabia Naseem, Javid Kirmani, Manzoor Ahmad Wani and Reyaz Ahmad Dar.

5-Day SCERT Math Workshop On CBL Question Bank Concludes

Crux of the NEP 2020 is to wean students off the rote learning: Official

Farooq Shah

SRINAGAR: A five-day workshop on review and finalisation of competency-based items of Mathematics question bank for Class 8, organised by the Education Research Survey and Analysis (ERSA) Division of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Kashmir, concluded here on Monday, December 13.  

SCERT Observes Int’l Day Of Persons With Disabilities

Empathy is okay but change of mindset need of the hour: Humayun Qaiser

Farooq Shah

SRINAGAR: “People living with disabilities –thanks to the apathy of a normal person –continue to wear the stigma of incapacity and shame even as we’re braving the odds more forcefully than before,” Sameer Wani, a teacher, who is blind in his both eyes, rued at a function organized by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on the eve of World Disability Day here on Friday.

World Disability Day, known formally as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, or simply Disability Day is observed every December 3 worldwide. The United Nations created the observance in 1992 to promote further compassion and understanding of people with disabilities of all types.

 “We can’t and should not latch onto the age-old beliefs and myths about disability,” Wani said. “We need family, a society that understands us more than a community to be pitied upon.”

To mark the event, the Inclusive and Special Education Wing of the SCERT organized a singing and painting competition among the disabled children who, along with their parents, mentors and escort teachers, had assembled in the conference hall of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) Srinagar.

Earlier, Riyaz Ahmad Baig, JKAS, who is the additional mission director of Jammu and Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission, said the absence of infrastructure for the disabled has impeded their normal course to success.

“The 3% government reservation for the disabled people won’t actually help as long as the mindset of normal people changes,” Baig said.

In 1982, Beigh lost both of his arms in a freak accident when he touched a high-tension wire near a transformer while playing football. He was barely four then. However, it did not deter him from pursuing his dreams and he went on to qualify the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) in the open merit category in 2004. Known for his meticulous writing, Beigh writes with his toes and lips.

 “Education is the only way forward and the only ray of hope for the disabled children,” Beigh remarked. He joined the event via Zoom.

Director SCERT, Prof Veena Pandita, who also joined the program via Zoom from her Jammu office, said the main objective of observing this Day is to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

 “In today’s modern era, inclusion and encouragement of people with disability in the routine functioning of our lives is essential for the development of a common accessible and sustainable future,” Prof Pandita said. “It becomes imperative to include everyone in the growth process for a better and sustainable growth of our nation.”

Visually impaired Abrar Ahmad Bhat, who was accompanied by his wife Sheikh Naghma, stressed on the importance of family support for the disabled people.

 “Family support helps people to sustain their lives at home and in the community,” Bhat, who works at a bank, said. “My success story is a testimony that it is the family that can bring about a qualitative change in the life of a disabled person.”

He urged the government to let the disabled people use more and more technology to facilitate their movements and aid in other forms of disability.

 “While there are some 60 to 70 different languages that ‘OK Google’ supports, we have sought the inclusion of Kashmiri language in the voice assistant,” Bhat said. “Because Braille cannot take us beyond the first university degree, it’s important that we embrace the technology more and more.”

While appreciating SCERT’s idea of holding a painting and singing competition among the disabled children, Ex Director All India Radio, Srinagar, Syed Humayun Qaisar, said it’s important to give a vent to the pent up emotions and creativity of any child more so of a disabled one.

 “Painting or singing or any hobby for that matter provides some sort of an outlet for a person to explore his innate and untapped qualities,” Qaiser said. “Nature compensates one form of disability with something extraordinary and if that is located and nurtured at an early age, nothing can stop a person with whatever little or big disability from realizing his dreams.”

The need of the hour, Qaiser said, is to avoid the word ‘disability’ from being repeated too often.