Highlights of the Year 2012

We, the CIE family, have conducted several workshops/seminars in different areas. Some of these are listed under the faculty members' profiles. We have been quite busy with innumerable academic and para-academic activities.

We have had visits from various Delegations/experts from different parts of the country as well as from outside the country. The department was visited by several representatives from universities and other organizations such as the University of Adelaide, University of Sydney, Australia, University of Ottawa, Canada,   Massey University, New Zealand, Goethe Institute, Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi, Alumni Affairs and German Studies, DAAD, Oxford University Press, UK, Centre for Assessment Evaluation and Research from CBSE - Pearson Foundation.

There have been staff and student exchanges between Freie University, Berlin and Delhi University as part of an MOU.

The Regional Resource Centre for Elementary Education (RRCEE), envisioned to create spaces and mechanisms for teachers and teacher educators to engage with education, within a larger socio-cultural and political context, has not only been active but has also grown in its strengths. Talks and seminars, film screenings, the Teacher fellowship programme, a growing library (with over 3000 titles in education and literature) are all activities that teachers, student teachers and researchers have been participating in.

English Language Proficiency Course (ELPC) set up under the aegis of the Institute of Life Long learning in 2008 to help students to improve their English language proficiency, has now moved to CIE. It offers an 80- hour self-sustaining course at three levels-basic, intermediate and advanced-to current students of Delhi University (UG, PG and Research students) outside the regular curriculum. This year the course was taught in about 40 centres and was made available to students from OBC and other reserved categories at a reduced cost. The course is unique in that ELPC teachers undergo a 6-day Orientation Programme, use loose-leaf materials and adopt a learner centred approach making the class very interactive. A proficiency test focusing on all the skills of the language is administered at the end of the course at each of the levels on the basis of which a Proficiency Certificate is given to students. We now have around 170 teachers working on ELPC. Further expansion is envisaged with many more teachers joining the team.

We have tried to strengthen the School Experience Programme by working out a framework for evaluation of student teachers' school programme which includes lesson planning, actual teaching, peer-observation and reflective journals. Colleagues from all the four institutions have participated in this activity. Similarly we are trying to achieve parity among the four institutions with regard to internal assessment for Papers 1, 2 and 3 (25%). Some of our colleagues from other institutions have started supervising M.Ed. dissertations and we hope to increase this kind of collaboration.  Some M. Phil courses have been revised and new ones added. The process for working out the detailed guidelines for M. Phil. dissertation has been initiated.

There are student societies such as Civics Society, History Society, Society of CIE's Rising Agglomeration of Technologists for Educational System (SOCRATES for short), and Students' Panchayat which translate ideas into action and enables student teachers and researchers to actually experience and further develop those ideas.

Our Research Colloquium is quite a vibrant and active forum with over 100 researchers (M.Ed., M.Phil. and Ph.D.) participating in the Wednesday seminars. This is where our researchers learn to present, question, answer, argue, and agree/disagree with one another on academic issues. We have also had many invited outside experts presenting at these colloquiums. It is known to be a 'thinking community of researchers acknowledging diverse perspectives and experiences'.

A review of the B.El.Ed. programme has been undertaken with inputs from various courses: their design, exams and other related issues and the feedback of graduates of the programme in terms of content, engagement and expectations. A Review Committee is currently engaged in the review.

The library is holding a book exhibition on 19 December with a view to adding new titles to our collection. There are other ideas in process that will help with reorganization and expansion of the library.

The CIE Experimental Basic School has been very active and students and teachers have been actively engaged in several activities. There are many new things planned with and for the school and we hope to see a lot of development in the months to come.

We lost Professor R.D. Mehta in September who had served CIE for several years. Mr. R. Padmanabhan and Mr. R.K. Parashar retired from service in July and October respectively.

We extended a very warm welcome to the Chief Guest of the 65th Foundation Day of CIE and to all the dignitaries who have accepted our invitation to be there with us. We were very fortunate to have with us a distinguished speaker, Professor Shantha Sinha, the first Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). She is an anti-child-labour activist of international reputation. She is the founder trustee of Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, popularly known as MV Foundation. She is also Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.  About 600,000 children in 5-14 years age have been withdrawn from child labour by MV Foundation in the last two decades. It has also pioneered the programme for mainstreaming children to schools through residential bridge courses. In 1500 villages MVF achieved retention of 99% of all children in schools. In recognition of her outstanding contribution, she was given the prestigious Ramon Magsasay Award in 2003. She was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1998 by the Government of India. She has received several other awards and much recognition. Professor Sinha's work has resulted in putting child labour on the national agenda for the first time in the country's history, a remarkable achievement and a lasting contribution to the nation.

We considered our privilege to present our Annual Report - 2012 on the special occasion, the 19th December, which we celebrated as the Foundation Day of CIE. This is a day when we look back at all the laurels we have earned and feel quite proud of the fact that we are considered one of the pioneering teacher education and research centres in India. This is also a day when we introspect and reflect on what else we need to do in the field, something more meaningful and constructive, in order to better address the emerging needs of the country, in order to continue to be torch bearers.