Kotak Mahindra Bank Associates With IT For Change To Enhance Digital Pedagogical Skills Of School Teachers In Karnataka

* A State-wide Teacher Professional Development program on Integrating Digital Story-Based Pedagogy in Language Education

To create lasting value in communities Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (“KMBL”/ “Kotak”) has associated with IT for Change (ITfC) to implement a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme that aims to enhance digital pedagogical skills of higher primary teachers in government schools in Karnataka for the academic year 2023-24. Kotak’s CSR Project is based on ‘Integrating Digital Story-Based Pedagogy in Language Education’ under the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT), Karnataka, will equip teachers with the necessary technology know-how to use unique digital resources in their teaching practices.

Using digital resources through inclusive and innovative pedagogies for language teaching-learning, this programme will help teachers experience and internalize meaningful technology and also set up teachers’ Communities of Practice (CoPs) to promote mentoring and peer learning opportunities for them to share experiences and ideas. Addressing the multi-language education need of the state, it will also create 100 story-based resources in Kannada, English, Urdu, and Marathi which will be accessible as Open Education Resources (OERs) within a dedicated repository.

On this occasion, Mrs Sumangala, the Director, DSERT, Karnataka said “the state welcomes the support of individuals, NGOs, corporate bodies and trusts in the implementation of quality education across the state. We are happy that Kotak Mahindra Bank is supporting IT for Change to implement this state-wide teacher professional development program to build teachers’ capacities to create and curate stories with multilingual, inclusive and innovative approaches to meaningfully integrate these resources as part of their classroom practice. The program aims to build foundational language skills in students in primary schools in the languages that are taught in the schools”.

Himanshu Nivsarkar, Senior EVP & Head- CSR, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “The COVID pandemic had adversely impacted foundational language and mathematical skills of students which has resulted in their abilities to understand concepts and phenomena in other subjects as well. We have CSR funded IT for Change to impart teacher training using digital stories as a pedagogical tool to bridge this gap in students’ competencies and support their future in receiving quality education”.

Gurumurthy Kasinathan, Director IT For Change said, “Over the past two decades, IT for Change has been enabling meaningful integration of digital technologies in education. As part of the current programme, our professional development workshops and teacher trainings will empower teachers to integrate digital technologies in their practice, develop OERs for shared learning and encourage and community participation”.

Kotak Karma is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) identity of the Kotak Mahindra Group of companies.

About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Established in 1985, Kotak Mahindra Group is one of India's leading financial services conglomerates. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. (KMFL), the Group's flagship company, received banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first non-banking finance company in India to convert into a bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

The Bank has four Strategic Business Units – Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury, which cater to retail and corporate customers across urban and rural India. The premise of Kotak Mahindra Group’s business model is concentrated India, diversified financial services. The bold vision that underscores the Group’s growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently banked. As on 30 September 2023, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has a national footprint of 1,850 branches and 3,170 ATMs, and branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai).

For more information, visit the company’s website at https://www.kotak.com/

About IT for Change

IT for Change (ITfC) is an NGO located in Bangalore, India, that works on innovative and effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to promote socio-economic change. ITfC works at global, national and local levels in programs relating to research, advocacy and field projects in the substantive areas of education, digital society and economy, governance, gender, community informatics and social policy. ITfC was established in 2000.

IT for Change has been working in the area of ‘ICT integration for improving the quality of Indian education’ since 2009. It conceptualizes, designs and develops teacher development models that support and develops knowledge outputs that argue the necessity and possibilities for empowering choices of digital technologies in education. Its work has covered pre-service and in-service teacher education as well as teacher educators, in multiple states of India – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. Nearly 30,000 Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Language teachers have learned to use a variety of digital methods to create contextual educational resources and to integrate into their subject teaching. Around 12,000 digital resources have been published on state open education resource portals. The research, communication and policy advocacy initiatives have supported design of curriculum and education policy with National and State Education institutions, including the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).

For more information, visit: https://itforchange.net/