VELLORE:Soon, government middle schools across the State shall start imparting Moral (value) education. Ranipet-based District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), under the aegis of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has taken the lead to launch the ‘Value Integrated Teaching and Learning (VITAL) scheme.
DIET principal A Basheer Ahmed said that the initiative was aimed at giving thrust to moral education in schools to inculcate values among students.
“We are targeting middle schools - teachers in those schools will be trained to impart specialised education to children,” he said. For this, SCERT has developed a handbook, which has been distributed to teachers across the State.
Under this initiative, DIET will train around 600 headmasters and teachers of middle schools - both government and aided - in Vellore district on how to teach values to students alongside the regular curriculum.
As many as 88 teachers, who have been selected from 20 blocks in the district, were given training to be master trainers (resource persons) in the first phase of the two-day training, which was inaugurated on November 2.
Resource persons, who are trained at the State-level, handled the training sessions conducted throughout the State on the two days. The master trainers, in turn, gave further training to other teachers in their blocks on November 5 and 6. “We are covering teachers of classes VI to VIII in 510 middle schools,” he said.
“The need for moral education in schools was in response to incidents of students attacking each other as well as teachers, among other issues. VITAL training covers how students should be trained on how to respect their parents, behave with elders and peers, social etiquette, imbibe good habits such as politeness, patriotism, sacrifice and leadership. It will also teach them social outreach - how they should volunteer to rescue people in danger or pain and help persons with disabilities. The focus is on preparing students to be good citizens,” Ahmed explained.