A teacher is a performer, says Neelam Mansingh during FDP at MCM

The seven-day National Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on ‘Expanding Paradigms of Pedagogy’ at MCM DAV College for Women culminated here today. Aimed at sensitising the participants about various facets of teaching as well as research and the technicalities and challenges therein, the programme had eminent academicians as speakers and 100 participants from diverse disciplines from across the country. Chief Guest for the valedictory session Prof. Arun Kumar Grover, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Panjab University congratulated the college for this novel initiative of enabling the creation of academic environment for excellence in education. Senate members of Panjab University Prof. Gurdip Kumar Sharma and Prof. Gurmeet Singh were also present on the occasion.

The day began with an interesting session on ‘Role of Theatre in Different Aspects of Life’ by renowned theatre personality Prof. Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, where she answered the pertinent question of whether art is useful in life. Referring to classroom as the place to take risks, open doors, challenge status quo and opening the minds of students to complex/mature ideas, Prof. Mansingh reiterated that a teacher is a performer who weaves a thread to connect with his/her audience and adds different dimensions to their personality. Dr. Dapinder Kaur Bakshi, Principal Scientific Officer, Biotechnology Division, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, Chandigarh and an MCM alumna enlightened the audience on the highly significant topic of ‘Women Empowerment and Funding for Women Entrepreneurship’. Quoting examples of success stories, Dr. Kaur underlined the importance of entrepreneurship in promoting self-dependence and employment generation and apprised the participants that identifying opportunity and, generating and evaluating ideas are crucial for entrepreneurship. She also made the participants aware of the various funding agencies like DBT, DST, CSIR, MSME, DRDO, etc. which promote entrepreneurship. Dealing with the practical aspect of designing experiments, Prof. R. Gadagkar, Year of Science Chair Professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore stressed on the fact that science is a democratic process and can be practiced by anyone. In his highly enlightening address, Prof. Gadagkar asserted that asking questions is more important than answering questions as inquisitiveness is the foundation on which the wall of knowledge is built.

The convenors of FDP Committee Ms. Madhvi Bajaj and Dr. Mridula Sharma expressed gratitude to the worthy Principal Dr. Nisha Bhargava for extending unconditional support in the planning and execution of this endeavour.

Thanking the experts, participants and the FDP organising committee for making the programme a huge success, Principal Dr. Nisha Bhargava said that higher education in India is undergoing a colossal metamorphosis driven by factors like globalisation, advent of information and communication technology and the like, which has necessitated continuous evaluation and updating of the skills of all the concerned stakeholders including teachers. She informed that this FDP was conceived keeping in mind the collective responsibility of all stakeholders to sail through these transformative changes.