Mentor Mould
An institute that gives you not just an education but a whole experience to internalise and pass on to students
STUDYING AT THE CENTRAL Institute of Education is a rather indispensable experience for budding teachers. This two-year course gives one time and opportunity to engage in wide-ranging reading, discussions, attending workshops and conferences. Teaching is one profession that takes you back to school, except that this time you find yourself on the other side of the classroom. It fills you with great pride that someone you have mentored goes on to bring about change in the world some years down the line. The campus brings together students from different streams of education and from various parts of the country. It was this lack of boundaries that enriched
my time at the CIE. We have a saying on the campus, ‘Once in CIE, always in CIE.’ The people one comes across, the ideas one exchanges, the variety of sports one participates in and the field trips you take during your years on the campus make your time here unforgettable.
At CIE, one does not ever have to worry about missing lunch. Because there’s always Negi uncle and his canteen. Life on the campus just wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for the meetha samosa and the pasta with an Indian tadka that you get here.
Every year, CIE hosts a fete for
children called the Baal Mela organised by the postgraduate and undergraduate students as well as the teachers. A few metres away from the Hero Honda Vishwavidyalaya metro station, the institute runs the Experimental Basic School for students of Class 1 to 8. Operating under the supervision of full-time teachers, it helps the students at the CIE interact with the children in school and implement the teaching practices they learn at the department. This emphasis on projectbased learning is what gives CIE the scoring edge over other institutes offering a BEd degree.
What also sets CIE apart is the extensive facilities it extends to differently-abled students. Not only does it provide reading material in Braille, even the notices are printed in Braille to assist visually-impaired students and faculty. Recording devices too are provided in the classrooms to ensure equal participation of all students. The college has also created ramps in its lush green environs for the wheelchair-bound.
CIE is rigid about its dictum to function with a secular, equal and democratic attitude, says N. Ranganathan, the dean and head of the department of education. According to her, the department gives priority to reflecting participatory democracy on the campus where every voice is attended to. Hierarchy is respected but does not come in the way of students interacting freely with their mentors. It’s this liberal atmosphere perhaps that brings students from the US, Canada, Southeast Asia and West Asian countries to the institute.