Kalika Chetarike to fill the learning gap

City Education

The program is implemented in three tiers: state, district and block.

Teachers of government schools in Karnataka are being trained under ‘Kalika Chetarike’ or the ‘learning recovery program’ to bridge the gap that occurred due to the pandemic.

Salim Pasha, Deputy Director for teacher education at Department of Educational Research and Training said, “The program is being operated at state, district and block levels. Currently, 1,64,000 teachers are being trained across 200 educational centres.”

This training started from May 5, 2022 and will go on till May 16, 2022. Teachers  are expected to learn different ways to bridge the gap that occurred in the two years and implement the tactics learnt in the classroom when the children come back from the summer holidays after May 16.

Ganappa T, Cluster Resource Person at District  Institute of Education and Training , RR Nagar said, “The children of primary classes are facing a lot of issues because of the two- year gap. They have been promoted to higher classes, but are not able to understand the concepts clearly.”

He added, “The teachers are facing a lot of issues because they are unable to make the children understand the concept because in primary classes, the lessons of previous classes are important  to understand the concept of lessons.”

The state government is paying Rs. 765 to each  teacher at state level and Rs.290 to each teacher at district level to attend the training.

Under the guidelines issued by the Department of Educational Research and Training, teachers are to be trained to conduct different activities in the class and involve the students in group projects to enhance their learning capabilities.

Guru Datta, a science teacher being trained at district level said, “The program is very important for getting back on track after two years of gap. The children have missed lessons with core concepts due to the pandemic which might be an obstacle in their higher education.”

Munna Reddy, senior lecturer at District Institute of Education and Training, RR Nagar said, “The program should be launched all over India and other states should take inspiration from Karnataka to help recover our education system from the pandemic.” The program is being implemented in three tiers. First, instructors are being trained at state level. Then, the instructors are training the teachers of district level and the district level teachers are training the block- level teachers. All the learning from the training will be implemented in the classroom after the summer break.