IISc centre trains 14,600 science teachers

Davanagere: Over 14,600 science and math teachers working in government high schools across the state have been trained by resource persons of the Talent Development Centre (TDC), Kudapura, in Challakere taluk in Chitradurga district.
The TDC is an extended campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, set up 11 years ago to train the teachers to upgrade their subject skills and knowledge.
The directorate of secondary education, research and training (DSERT) is an authorised agency to periodically select the teachers who need training and depute them to the centre, said professor DN Rao, the head of the centre.
The tough concepts of science are verified by conducting experiments in modern labs of the centre and thus the teachers are made to understand complicated science issues, Rao said. “We give hands-on training for Physics, Chemistry and Biology and the trainee teachers show lot of curiosity and enthusiasm and clear their doubts,” he added.
Anjan Kumar, a biology teacher, and Anil Kumar, a mathematics teacher from Odisha, said that they had learnt new teaching methods through hands-on experiments and thus their teaching capability had improved.
Math teachers are made to clear their doubts through problem solving techniques, said Professor Malathi Hegde, the resource person for mathematics.
The centre also trains mathematics faculty from PUCs, degree and PG course teachers.
A group of expert resource persons from physics, chemistry, mathematic and biology (PCMB) are drawn from the senior faculty of IISc, Bengaluru, who train these teachers, said Professor MS Hegde, a former head of the centre and chemistry resource person.
The training will be limited to 10 to 12 days for each batch of teachers and each batch may contain one hundred persons, Prof Hedge said. “Recently, we trained over 109 government high school teachers followed by PUC teachers deputed by the Odisha government. It was for the first time out-of-state teachers were trained,” Professor Rao said.