NCERT to send new foundational learning material to 20,000 schools, train more teachers

The council has trained over 60,000 teachers and is now mass producing the Jaadui Pitara boxes

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is scaling up production of boxes of foundational educational material to be dispatched to schools across the country and continues to provide training to teachers on how to use the kits.

The council has trained over 60,000 teachers and is now mass producing the Jaadui Pitara boxes, which were launched two months ago, for dispatch to more than 20,000 schools, director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said.

“We are re-working the Jaadui Pitara boxes. The boxes used for the launch were good but now they have to be circulated across the country and are needed in vast quantities,” Saklani told Moneycontrol in an interview. “Preparations for the same are on.’

While several State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) centres have been given the boxes already, all others will get them soon, he said.

The Jaadui Pitara boxes have been developed as an exemplar of content needed in any school for the foundational learning stage – children aged 3-8. It has toys, games, puzzles, puppets, posters, flashcards, story cards, playbooks, activity books, and worksheets for students and a handbook for teachers.

The boxes will be sent to schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) via the SCERTs.

Adaptable boxes

“We will be providing these to over 20,000 CBSE schools as well as Kendriya Vidyalayas from our end. Others interested in taking these will have to place orders and the boxes will be made available to them as well,” the official said.

Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the play and activity-based learning-teaching materials for the foundational stage in 13 languages on February 20. While there is no mandate for private schools to use these boxes, the ministry aims to provide private educators with models that they can adapt.

“They can use this exact box or make creative derivations from it. I am sure many such new boxes will be created in each district, in each state,” Pradhan said during the launch.

Although the boxes come with a handbook for teachers, NCERT has taken it upon itself to train teachers across the country on how to use them efficiently.

“Our biggest work here has been providing online capacity building to thousands of teachers. While 60,000 teachers have already been given these courses, we are working on spreading this programme across the country,” said Saklani. “Teachers need to understand the learning teaching material for the foundational stage and only then will they be able to teach the children.”

NCERT will soon begin training programmes for other teachers throughout the country, Saklani said. The programmes will run in online and physical mode. NCERT aims to conduct these programmes in the next two months, while simultaneously distributing Jaadui Pitara boxes to schools.