Context
With the shift in SSDP’s implementation procedure following the federalisation process in 2018, Provincial Education Training Centers (PETCs) under the Provincial Ministry of Social Development has been entrusted to provide teacher training which was an integral part of Nepal’s School Sector Development Plan (2016/17-2022/23) with Education & Human Resource Development (CEHRD) overseeing them.
With a dramatic shift in the teaching-learning process resulting from the COVID emergency since March 2020, teachers were faced with the challenge to adapt to the needs demanded from the new teaching, following government guidelines. To ensure teachers were able to deliver remote and e-learning processes to offset school closure, the Provincial Education Training Centers (PETCs) had to alter the delivery of teacher training programs for science, mathematics, English and Nepali as outlined in the SSDP.
Teacher trainers had to move rapidly into online spaces and adapt their training to suit. In this regard, CEHRD has authorised the PETCs to conduct TPD-related 30-days long training programs through virtual mode. It also developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for conducting the training virtually.
Intervention
This situation was open to supporting from SSDP’s teacher training component promoting the appropriate and enabling use of ICT in the teaching-learning process.
The SSDP TA Facility, supported by the European Union (EU) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), worked with CEHRD’s training centre to develop a PETC Trainers’ handbook for rapid adaptation from face to face to online training. This was quickly followed and supplemented with an innovative online skills training course to provide deeper opportunities for trainers to gain quick skills, knowledge and understanding to improve their capacity to support teachers online.
In January and February 2021, a total of 60 teacher trainers from all provinces participated in the course.
The weeklong training supported PETC trainers’ ability to continue teachers’ professional learning through online strategies and digital tools, built their adaptive competency in unfamiliar environments and developed their capacity to engage teachers through accessible, interactive and learner-focused remote activities.
The training was conducted through live sessions in Zoom, reading materials and videos and participants’ engagement with facilitators and peers through the Slack App. A mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities covered topics such as pedagogical theory and accessibility, as well as providing practice in quick, practical skills to work with learners in new environments.
