Highlights of the Year 2011

The year 2011 has been marked by several activities and programmes, which were undertaken, involving both the faculty, as well as, students of the Department.

The Central Institute of Education celebrated its 63 Foundation Day last year. The Chief Guest of the Programme, Prof. Jean Dreze (Member, National Advisory Council; Visiting Faculty, Delhi School of Economics and G.B. Pant Institute, Allahabad) delivered the Foundation Day Address on "What'' New in School Education". A play entitled, "The Little Prince", directed by Arvind Gaur, was staged by the Asmita Group.

The activities of the year 2011 started with the Basu Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Ms. Urvashi Butalia. Continuing our endeavor for meaningful engagement, this year several lectures were organized by the department. Prof. Kancha lliah was invited to talk on the 'The Dialogue of Dalit Writing and Knowing' and Prof. Christoph WuIf, Freie University, Berlin shared his views on 'Education in a Globalised World: An Inter-cultural Task'. A National Level workshop was organized in the Department on the theme 'Changing Role of Teachers in Contemporary India: Policy and Practice'.

Every year the department is visited by representatives from various other universities. This year, the delegations from the University of Edinburgh. Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Taiwan University, The School of Education, Sterling University and University of Calicut visited the department, to promote academic exchanges and to explore areas of collaborative research among the institutes.

The Regional Resource Centre for Elementary Education (RRCEE) has moved to Phase II. For the year 2011-12, ten elementary school teachers have been selected for the RRCEE Teacher Fellowship from across different state and private schools, representing a diverse set of research areas. Study sessions for these teachers have also been conducted and an effort is being made to compile readings for these sessions. RRCEE provides diverse plafforms for professional development of teacher practitioners and student-teachers, through its various programmes. In its Public Lecture Series it invited Dr. Uma Chakravarti to deliver a talk on the theme, "New Conjugality and its Discontents: Mixed Legacies for Women's Education". Within its continued efforts for professional development, a three-day faculty development programme was organized at SCERT Gurgaon and a portfolio of readings for each of the six courses of the D.Ed. programme, adapted from the NCTE model syllabi by the State Government of Haryana, were prepared.

CIE faculty members continue to play a significant role in the larger professional community. This year, Prof. Krishna Kumar was honoured with the Padmashree award for his contributions in the field of Education. He was also awarded an Honorary D.Litt in Education by the Institute of Education, University of London, for contribution to education as a discipline.

A wide range of curricular activities within and outside the campus have been an essential component of the programmes of the department. Early this year, the Panchayat had organised programmes in collaboration with SPIC MACAY, conducted a visit to the Nehru Planetarium for a special programme on the astronomer Prof. Chandrashekhar, and a walk around Nehru Museum. This year, the Faculty organised an Interactive programme on Pandita Ramabai, directed by Ms. Maya Rao and staged by the National School of Drama (NSD). Several shows of the programme were held for students of CIE and also for B.EI.Ed. students of various colleges, during the month of August at the Conference Centre of the University.

The students of CIE are also involved in subject societies, wherein they learn to acknowledge multiple perspectives of embedding content and experiential learning. This year, the Civics Society and the History Society have been active in organizing several workshops, wall debates, trips, film screenings and heritage walks. Some of these were the debate on 'Roots of terrorism: Religion or Politics?', wall debates on 'Contemporary Efforts against Corruption', and visits to the Parliament, National Museum and a Heritage Walk to the Mehrauli Complex.

The library at CIE continues to attract scholars, students and faculty members from various universities and institutions in the country. It has a rich treasure of books - both old and contemporary, including valuable reference books. During this year, we added 829 more books to the existing collection. Twenty periodicals, including six foreign periodicals, are being subscribed too. All the books, periodicals, thesis and dissertations have been catalogued in the process of the ongoing computerisation of the library.

Prof. Krishna Maitra retired at the end of October, 2011, after having had a long tenure of teaching in the Department, since 1983. We wish her many years of an active and creative life ahead.