Escaping the soaring temperature here, teachers of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) schools will be headed for a professional development trip to the hills in Uttarakhand.
Beginning on Monday, the teachers are going to Dhanaulti on a four-day trip. As per the plan, the teachers will visit nearby villages to impart awareness on the Right to Education (RTE) Act and carry out activities for cultural exchange in these villages. They will also visit schools in the Tehri Garhwal district of the State.
The NDMC has narrowed down on Chhandukhel and Goth villages where a group of 61 teachers will put up camps for promoting cultural interface and RTE. While in one village the teachers will be organising a workshop on RTE where different nuances of the act will be explained; in the other village, they will set up a community kitchen where they will cook and eat with the villagers.
Director Education, NDMC, Vidushi Chaturvedi said, "There are many cases where differently-abled children or those coming from economically weaker sections of the society do not go to school. The RTE is for all children between the age group of 6-14, irrespective of any physical ailment, caste, creed or class. We aim to create awareness among them." The teachers will also distribute gifts and books in order to encourage them.
"Through community kitchen, the team aims at sharing their experiences with the villagers and to learn the hurdles that the villagers face on a day-to-day basis. The community kitchen will be an interesting feature of the tour. In India, most of the informal conversations happen over dinner or lunch. By cooking and eating with them, the villagers will feel more at ease and will openly speak up. An exchange of folk culture is our main motive," she added.
According to the civic body, the excursion which is named as 'professional development tour' will be a great learning experience for the teachers. In the trip, teachers are expected to interact and exchange their experiences with the State Government.
"In States like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, despite the terrain being hilly, teachers are so committed to teaching that they stay away from their homes for weeks together. In Delhi, our teachers get all facilities, yet they complain of multiple issues. Meeting teachers in schools there will be inspirational for them and they'll see what real tough life is," maintained Chaturvedi.