The Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy (MSFDA) which focuses on teachers’ training in higher educational institutes also deals with mental health, gender sensitivity, human rights, eliminating biases, acceptance of diversity, and instilling constitutional values.
In December 2021, the state launched the academy. Nipun Vinayak, executive director of the academy, knows that it requires at least a couple of years more to make a visible impact in the teacher training sector, especially with their limited resources, but partnerships with established institutes are paying off, he added.


“We have trained at least 5,000 teachers from 1,000 institutes across the state in the one and a half years that we have been active. But, more than the number game, we are into reaching out to at least one teacher in every college in the state, especially in rural areas, so that this training can be scaled up. Recently, we organized training for newly inducted teachers in colleges for a month,” he said.
The projects have experiential learning, creativity, innovation, learning beyond knowledge, multidisciplinary education, diversity and inclusion, and scientific temperament and rational thinking.

“These are also what NE proposes. Hence, the teacher training courses are designed such that they are not yet another certificate-gaining exercise. We are aiming for a holistic change,” Vinayak said.
Vinayak said that many managements were reaching out to these institutes on their own to train their teachers, especially in science and maths pedagogy.


MSFDA is collaborating with Azim Premji University in B.Ed education.
“If we train teachers who are involved in training future educators, we think there will be a positive change,” Vinayak said. They are also working with IIT Bombay focussing on how graduating students are able to apply their knowledge in the real world.


Supriya Dudhal, associate professor, Vasantdada Patil Pratishthan’s College of Engineering & Visual Arts, who attended the disability and inclusion workshop said all colleges have a 5% quota for students with disability but not many such students take advantage of it.


” The course made me realize why all colleges must be disabled-friendly, what should be done to make it so, how all colleges must have a contact person for such students, what are the documentations required and what schemes are available to them. If teachers get sensitized to this issue, then we will have a much more inclusive education system,” she said.


Swati Parab, associate professor from Raigad college said, the lectures were about how to identify suicidal tendencies in students, how to create a safe space, how to help them share what they are going through, and how to help them seek help if needed.


The whole point is to bring self-esteem in students and help them share what makes them feel helpless and leads to suicidal thoughts, she said.
“We need more teachers to talk to their students so that we can reduce stress. Once they get emotional support, they can help themselves, and then they can create spaces to help out other students,” she added.

Credit: TimesofIndia