Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has urged affiliated schools to take advantage of the centres of excellence to impart effective and continual training to the heads of institutions, teachers and other stakeholders in a planned and systematic manner.

CBSE issued the notice last week on its official website.

The centres of excellence have been set up in at Gurgaon, Panchkula, Kaki-nada, Pune, Rae Bareli, Calcutta and Kochi. Of these, the ones at Pune, Gurgaon, Panchkula and Kakinada are functional.

The Gurgaon centre is responsible for training teachers from Bihar, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"Teachers are expected to take part in the in-service training programme that helps as a quality improvement tool. The details of the training programme to be conducted by the centres are periodically uploaded on the official website," said D.T. Sudarshan Rao, the joint secretary and in-charge of academics and training, CBSE.

The circular mentions that training centres would contact schools under their jurisdiction regarding schedule and at the same time, even schools may contact them with specific training requirement.

"This training is also crucial because it fulfils the schools' training requirements as mentioned in Rule 3.3 h (vi) of the Affiliation Bylaws," added Rao.

The Rule states that every school should organise at least a week's training programme for teachers every year in association with some teachers' training institute recognised by the state or central government or by any agency identified by the board.

"The centres aim at bringing qualitative improvement in the field of school education through quality teacher training. CBSE has been engaged in training in-service teachers for the past decade," said Rao.

"It would offer quality programme to teachers collaborating with educationists, teachers and other eminent personalities to train teach-ers to the maximum level," added Rao.

"The training is important to empower teachers and heads of schools with the right tools to provide quality education to children. CBSE is committed to create situations, where all teachers are able to get the best possi-ble professional support to update their academic skills, leading to quality and excellence," said assistant secretary of CBSE regional office Arvind Kumar.

The principals and heads of schools are elated over the centres of excellence designed for educators.

Putting across his point of view, D.K. Ghosh, the principal of DAV Public School, Khagaul, said: "Creating situations where all teachers are able to get the best possible professional preparation and support to update their pedagogical skills would result in quality teachers for all levels of education to render optimum benefit to all school students."

Usha Martin World School principal Anita Singh said: "For new schools, it is impossible to get trained teachers for various classes. This programme would benefit our teachers to undertake action research to develop innovative methods, processes and practices to improve teaching-learning environment in schools."