Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) in collaboration with EdIndia Foundation, an edtech non-profit organisation kickstarted its 3-day online training of 21,000 teachers to prepare them for teaching through online and blended platforms. The training also focussed on sensitizing the teacher to the “New Normal” post COVID and the need for healthy emotional and mental well-being of children when they return to studies after a long break.

As schools are shut across the country due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, children in schools have lost their routines, spaces, social networks, and resources critical for learning. School shutdowns could not only cause disproportionate learning losses for these students—compounding existing gaps—but also lead to dropouts. A UNESCO report states that the pandemic will adversely impact over 290 million students across 22 countries. The 3-day webinar was set-up to strengthen the capabilities of the teachers to identify appropriate digital tools and resources to deliver online lessons effectively. It also focused on helping children to mitigate emotional or mental vulnerabilities due to the lockdown.

Elaborating on the partnership Sonakshi Agarwal, Director, EdIndia, said “We need to democratize access to quality education for all strata of the society. Today, technology plays a significant role in teachers’ professional development. I am very proud of our collaboration with MCGM for this training programme. It will help the teachers to embrace technology and make their teaching methods more effective for school children.”

Introducing the session, Honourable Kishori Pednekar, Mayor of Mumbai talked about the hard work of teachers and welcomed everyone to the webinar. She appreciated the initiative which ensures continuity of education. Ms. Anjali Naik, Chairperson, Education Committee and Mr. Ashutosh Salil, Joint Municipal Commissioner, MCGM also addressed the inaugural session.

The inaugural webinar, managed by EdIndia and streamed on YouTube,  was attended by 9000 odd  teachers on Day 1.  21000 teachers will be trained during the 3 days. This is a first-of-its-kind training which focuses on online teaching and emotional needs of both teachers and children.

EdIndia Foundation also provided access to its virtual learning Android App “Pragyan” for all MCGM teachers. The App has digital resources as per state syllabus and is a virtual classroom for training of teachers.

Also read: MCGM promotes online learning to check school dropouts