The teachers are now halfway through a two-year teacher training programme, funded by the charity, and for some, it is the first formal teacher training they have had.
The idea was the brainchild of UK support Group member Dr Alan Schamroth who knew one of the trustees of the Helga Todd Foundation, a UK-based organisation that provides funding for best quality teaching courses for teachers, and put it in touch with Ananya Chatterjee, who runs CR’s education team.
CR trustee Seema Sapru, who is the principal of The Heritage School Kolkata, one of the most prestigious schools in West Bengal, generously arranged for two of her teachers to provide coaching and support on the ground.
They visit CR’s two schools every fortnight for two hours to talk the teachers through each element of the online Teach 2030 course developed by Commonwealth Education Trust, a UK-based charitable organisation and the Commonwealth network of 54 member countries.
Every month there is also a call to the foundation’s education advisers in the UK who monitor progress.
Subjects covered include fresh thinking in the classroom, lesson planning, teaching online, how to make teaching more active, and how children learn.
Mr Ben Taubman, one of the trustees of the Helga Todd Foundation said, ” The involvement with CR has shown us at the Foundation how we can help other schools and NGOs become involved in Teach 2030 and provided both the Foundation and the Commonwealth Education Trust who produce the materials a new way of working together and involving more schools in the programme.”
“We love how interactive the sessions are. First, we are trained and then we are asked to share our own ideas and understandings,” said Priyanka, the head teacher of Calcutta Rescue No 10 education centre.
The teachers are impressed with the training course. “I love how caring the trainers are while discussing the topics. I feel myself improving when I teach my students now,” said Rajnandini, a teacher at No 10 education centre.
Ananya said the course is having a big impact on the quality of teaching of her team and their confidence: “We are grateful for everything Helga Todd Foundation has done for the training of Calcutta Rescue teachers.”
