Creating Pathways for Technology Readiness in the Education System of Mizoram
A roundtable on improving secondary education in Mizoram: ‘Creating Pathways for Technology Readiness in the Education System of Mizoram’ was conducted on 20 Jan 2017 at Aizawl, Mizoram. The Honourable Minister of Education, Mr H Rohluna, chaired the roundtable inspite of his hectic travel schedule and bad throat.
Dr Hnamte, Associate Professor, Mizoram University, and the implementation lead for the state, presented the achievements and challenges of bringing the connected learning initiative to 30schools in Mizoram: Why are teachers slow to respond to new opportunities?What can the department of education do to improve the state of school infrastructure?
Ms. Liantluangpuii, Principal of Govt. Mamawii High School, reported that her students liked the CLIx classes and did not want to miss them. She said, “give us time”.We realised that we could have started implementation of CLIx with such a roundtable to understand the big picture and the expectations from us at the outset.
Mr. David Lallawmkima Fanai, Director of Academics, Mizoram Board of Secondary Education, who has been a mathematics domain expert, said that CLIx is different from other software and tools in the market. Referring to the geometric reasoning module, he said that CLIx is not just textbook-oriented but goes to the foundations of a subject and makes children think.
Ms. Esther Zohmingliani, who teaches English in Govt. Durtlang High School and has been using the CLIx module for a few months, said that children enjoyed talking and speaking, reading and writing English.She said that teachers didn’t often give students such opportunities, but with CLIx, they got to talk and collaborate and were active. This was joyful to the students and the teachers.
Wendy Lalthazuali, the Class IX student from Esther’s school’s presentation, won everyone’s heart.She said that she and her classmates were at first skeptical, but in the very first lesson, they began to enjoy this way of learning.They especially appreciate it that they can make mistakes, listen to themselves and re-record and that they can write sentences and create their own stories. Wendy said that all students wait eagerly for their CLIx classes.
These educators and this student expressed the benefits of CLIx better than anything we could have said about the importance of interaction, collaboration and active learning. These voices were greatly appreciated by the key invitees to the meeting: the Minister of Education, Mr H Rohluna; the Acting Vice Chancellor, Mizoram University, Professor Lianzela; the Secretary and the Director, Education Department. They were all concerned that the current resource allocation in Mizoram limited the state’s ability to enhance school infrastructure. However, all effort would be made to leverage existing resources and find new opportunities to improve the conditions of the science and computer labs, the learning environment in the schools, and timetabling and time allocation, and to strengthen teacher professional development that is central to improving quality.
