CBSE introduces ‘Innovation Ambassador – Online Training Program’ for Teachers under New Education Policy

    On 04-May-2021, the CBSE released the notification on ‘Innovation Ambassador – Online Training Program’. Progressing under the New Education Policy, CBSE plans to promote out of the box thinking among students. To implement this new dimension in classroom, CBSE in collaboration with Innovation cell and AICTE first plans to train the teachers. Few teachers will be selected from each school and will become innovation ambassador.

 

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in collaboration with Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE had announced the ‘Innovation Ambassador – Online Training Program’ for Teachers.

The objective of the program is to Nurture the school students on problem-solving and critical thinking. The corporate employees would have familiar with these terminology widely used in the industry where innovation is given more important. Companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google often use the Design thinking concept in their product development and to come with innovating products. It is interesting to note that CBSE is going to introduce design thinking at school level to inculcate creativity among children.

New Education Policy (NPE) which was announced in year 2020 has placed emphasis on stimulating out-of-the box thinking among the students. To achieve this goal, it becomes really significant that the teachers are first trained. The teachers should become mentors and guide these young minds in their pursuit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Also, it is equally crucial for teachers to have adequate mentoring skills.

On 04-May-2021, the CBSE released the notification on ‘Innovation Ambassador – Online Training Program’ in order to strengthen the mentoring skills of teachers for nurturing and handholding ideas from students.

In this program, the teachers shall be trained on the following four modules:

1. Design Thinking & Innovation (Duration-26 Hours)

2. Idea generation & Ideal hand-holding (Duration-15 Hours)

3. Intellectual Property Rights (Duration-12 Hours)

4. Product / Prototype development (Duration-13 Hours)

Upon successful completion of the trainings, these trained teachers shall be designated as ‘Innovation Ambassadors’

 

Role of the ‘Innovation Ambassadors’:

• Help in creating the culture of Innovation in their respective schools
• Mentor the teachers and students of their respective schools and nearby schools
• Provide support to other schools as resource person
• Spread the message of innovation and start-ups among the students and faculties
• Act as an evaluator for Idea Competitions conducted at national level
• Act as a Mentor for the national level program on Innovation and related activities

Through this ‘Innovation Ambassador Program’, CBSE plans to train 50,000 teachers (i.e. two/ three teachers per school) from all CBSE affiliated schools as ‘Innovation Ambassadors’. Thus, all CBSE affiliated schools should nominate four/five teachers from their school (in order of preference) for this program.

 

Selection of teachers is be based on the following criteria:

• Involvement in developing innovative student projects
• Passion for working with students on developing new ideas
• Demonstrates Problem-solving skills
• Possesses good communication and analytical skills
• Participated in any science/innovation exhibition, hackathons and idea competitions etc.

The first batch of the first module of the first module viz. Design Thinking & Innovation will start on 17thMay 2021.The formal launch of the Innovation Ambassador Program is scheduled on 13thMay 2021.

Selection of teachers will be done on the basis of their credentials and only the selected teachers will be informed about their batch, date, and timing of training through email in advance (on the email id of the school SPOC provided at the time of registration).