Oct 28, 2020 | Education
– Awarded the Best Teacher Training of the Year, Best Vocational Education of the Year, and Best Preschool Operations & Management of the Year at ‘The Internet Entrepreneur Awards’
– Bestowed National Award for Marketing Excellence in Education at the 7th Edition of the National Awards for Marketing Excellence
Ampersand Group, an end-to-end school management services provider bagged an array of awards at the recently concluded The Future of Tech Congress & Awards’ – The Internet Entrepreneur Awards and at the 7th Edition of the National Awards for Marketing Excellence held virtually in Mumbai.
Ampersand Group has partnered several state governments, central ministries, and local bodies from Jammu & Kashmir to Tamil Nadu and were awarded a hat-trick of awards during ‘The Future of Tech Congress & Awards’ – The Internet Entrepreneur Awards. They bagged the Best Teacher Training Of The Year for training teachers in Balwadis under the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Anganwadis in Nashik under the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India, Tribal Development Department, Thane, Government of Maharashtra, Government of Jammu & Kashmir, Government of Tamil Nadu, Central Tibetan School Administration in Uttarakhand and West Bengal, among others.
They were also awarded the Best Vocational Education Of The Year for imparting vocational training and skilling in nearly 20 states with a capacity of over 81,000 students in over a dozen areas and also for the Best Preschool Operations & Management Of The Year for operating Balwadis under the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and Anganwadis in Nashik under the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.
In addition, Ampersand Group also bagged the National Award for Marketing Excellence in Education at the 7th Edition of the National Awards for Marketing Excellence for its Online Teacher Training in Jammu & Kashmir amidst lockdown due to Sars-CoV-2 despite the presence of limited internet services through a robust platform catering to nearly 100 teachers remotely and impacting thousands of students in the process. Ampersand Group had also rolled out a nationwide #ThankYouTeacher campaign to extend gratitude towards teachers for their unrelenting support towards maintaining continuity in education during the central lockdown.
Mr. Rustom Kerawalla, Chairman, Ampersand Group said, “Ampersand Group is honoured to receive these awards and this reflects the Group’s relentless efforts in partnering with various state governments and other government bodies in imparting education and vocational training. Ampersand Group has been a pioneer in imparting education in online and blended education modes. The recent pandemic has shown us that the models that we have followed have shown that education can be a continuous process irrespective of the circumstances. Our learnings in the private sector in providing quality education are the basis of what we endeavour to do in the future and what we are been doing today.”
Mr. Vinesh Menon, Chief Executive Officer – Education, Skilling & Consultancy Services, Ampersand Group said, “The awards recognise our work done with the government and thus makes it special. The Ampersand Group has been in the service of education for a decade and a half. For the past three to four years, we have extended that service to the government. We have started to work with the central and state governments in areas related to school education and skilling. The three categories of Teacher Training, Vocational Education and Early Childhood Education have been categorically highlighted in the National Education Policy as a game-changer and we are extremely happy that we identified these areas early. We have invested a lot of time, effort, and resources in ensuring to build an extremely robust technology platform to help replicate and scale this across the country.”
Sep 24, 2020 | Education
– A remarkable 8 point rise in the Average Post Assessment Score indicates the success of the programme as teachers gain academically through relevant courses
– 95% of teachers surveyed were graduates and nearly 79%teachers had more than 5 years’ experience, stressing on the need to introduce a refreshed teaching approach; The survey also highlighted the need for digital infrastructure with 65% of teachers seeking exposure to technology and ICT
Thane (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), September 24, 2020: An integrated pilot project for training school teachers was conducted recently by Eduspark International Pvt. Limited, a school management company owned by Ampersand Group, across Ashram schools in Thane, Maharashtra.
The objective of the program was to provide sustainable quality training for capacity building of teachers and continuous professional development through technology enabled solution. The office of Additional Commissioner, Thane Division, Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra selected a heterogeneous mix of 28 experienced and new Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary teachers from neighboring Ashram Schools situated in Themba, Susarwadi, Shenva, Madh, Dahagaon, Ambivali and many small villages around Thane to participate in the programme. The duration of the programme was 60 hours and was delivered in Marathi language. Each course was divided into modules for better and effective understanding of the subject.
Before the onset of the programme, a survey was conducted across 10 schools with nearly 60 teachers and 10 principals to assess the challenges faced by the teachers and devise solutions to create a training curriculum for the teachers. A training programme including six courses and six modules was designed including 21st-century approaches to learning, pedagogy & evaluation, Fundamentals of child development, spectrum of special needs, basics in safety practices in school, basics in health and nutrition and professional skills. The objective was to improve the pedagogical skills with relevant subjects through technology. A detailed pre and post-assessment was conducted and the average score amongst the teachers was compared. In the post-assessment teachers’ score improved to an average of 24/30 as compared to 16/30 in the pre-assessment.
Mr. Rustom Kerawalla, Chairman, Ampersand Group said, “It is well known that the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher competence, sensitivity and teacher motivation. The objective of the program was to provide sustainable quality solution for the capacity building of teachers based on their needs and their continuous professional development through technology enabled solution. The training will help teachers from the tribal dominated areas to upskill themselves with modern methods of teaching and help them address the needs of the students in a scientific manner.”
The school teachers noted that the online teacher training platform has been a game-changer as most of the concepts taught during the formative years as a teacher are revisited in the courses. The training has certainly empowered them to create rote learning free classrooms and compelled them to think out of the box.
With an aim to adopt new methods of teaching that complement the traditional ones, Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, led the implementation of the project in Thane. The blended training has been beneficial and relevant to the teachers with NCERT too encouraging teachers to undergo training online.
Sep 24, 2020 | Education
– Ampersand Group had initiated a pre-Pilot survey in various regions in Thane District that covered 95% of graduate teachers and nearly 79% teachers with more than 5 years of teaching experience
– The survey also highlighted the need for digital infrastructure with 65% of teachers seeking exposure to technology and ICT; Teachers stressed on the need to introduce a refreshed teaching approach; Programme helps them improve their skills by 27 percent
Thane (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), September 24, 2020: An integrated pilot project for training school teachers was conducted recently by Eduspark International Pvt. Limited, a school management company owned by Ampersand Group, across Ashram schools in Thane, Maharashtra.
The objective of the programme which was mainly conducted online and included a few physical workshops was to provide sustainable quality training for capacity building of teachers and continuous professional development through technology enabled solution. The office of Additional Commissioner, Thane Division, Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra selected a heterogeneous mix of 28 experienced and new Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary teachers from neighbouring Ashram Schools situated in Themba, Susarwadi, Shenva, Madh, Dahagaon, Ambivali and many small villages around Thane to participate in the programme. The duration of the programme was 60 hours and was delivered in Marathi language. Each course was divided into modules for better and effective understanding of the subject.
Before the onset of the programme, a survey was conducted across 10 schools with nearly 60 teachers and 10 principals to assess the challenges faced by the teachers and devise solutions to create a training curriculum for the teachers. A training programme including six courses and six modules was designed including 21st century approaches to learning, pedagogy & evaluation, fundamentals of child development, spectrum of special needs, basics in safety practices in school, basics in health and nutrition and professional skills. The objective was to improve the pedagogical skills with relevant subjects through technology. A detailed pre and post assessment was conducted and the average score amongst the teachers was compared. The survey conducted by Ampersand Group revealed a 27 percent improvement in the skilling knowledge possessed by the teachers as compared to prior to the pilot project.
Mr. Rustom Kerawalla, Chairman, Ampersand Group said, “It is well known that the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher competence, sensitivity and teacher motivation. The objective of the program was to provide sustainable quality solution for the capacity building of teachers based on their needs and their continuous professional development through technology enabled solution. The training will help teachers from the tribal dominated areas to upskill themselves with modern methods of teaching and help them address the needs of the students in a scientific manner.”
The school teachers noted that the online teacher training platform has been a game-changer as most of the concepts taught during the formative years as a teacher are revisited in the courses. The training has certainly empowered them to create rote learning free classrooms and compelled them to think out of the box.
With an aim to adopt new methods of teaching that complement the traditional ones, Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, led the implementation of the project in Thane. The blended training has been beneficial and relevant to the teachers with NCERT too encouraging teachers to undergo training online.
