Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda on Friday launched the 'School Innovation Ambassador Training Program' for 50,000 school teachers.
The innovative and one-of-its-kind training programme for school teachers aims at training 50,000 school teachers in innovation, entrepreneurship, interpersonal relations, design thinking, product development, idea generation, among others. "The teachers are the biggest influence in our lives. We aim to make our teachers change-agents and ambassadors of innovation to make our students future-ready," Pradhan said at the launch.
The education minister stressed that technology is reshaping the world, and students have the potential to not only address domestic but also global challenges. The programme is a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). It aims to nurture lakhs of students with innovation capabilities, develop a culture of innovation and lay the foundation of a new and vibrant India, he added.
"The initiative will benefit a large number of schools for tribal children across the country by giving wings to the creativity of the children and provide a platform so that they can give something new to the world with their ideas," Munda said. "Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) for tribal children is another ambitious programme under which 740 EMRS will be established in tribal dominated areas over the next three years," he added.
Munda explained that through this unique capacity-building programme for teachers, prominence has been given to the development of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication skills among children. He said that the integration of Eklavya Schools into the entire programme is a big step in this direction for the development of tribal children.
The programme has been designed by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education and the AICTE for school teachers based on its "Innovation Ambassador Training Program for Higher Educational Institution's faculty members". The training will be delivered in online mode only.