Dr Sukhdeep Kaur is working as Principal at Akal College of Education Mastuana Sahib Sangrur and as Finance Secretary of AEWS Sangrur. She has 15 years of teaching experience and 5 years of experience as Principal. She has done M.A. (Economics, English , Psychology), M.Ed., M.Phil (Education), NET (Economics) and Ph.D. (Education). She has published 12 research papers in journals, and has also published many articles in newspapers. She has presented 30 papers in national and international conferences and seminars. She has attended 3 international workshops and many national workshops on different themes. She was the coordinator of NAAC during NAAC accreditation of her college. She has received a state award from the Government of Punjab for contribution in the field of her work for special Education.

Akal College of Education Mastuana Sangrur

What is the latest program that you are offering in your institute/dept. which will help students outperform and stand apart from the crowd? 

The college has introduced two new ad-on courses namely Postgraduate Diploma in Career Guidance and Certificate course in Inclusive Education. These courses can be done with B.Ed. and M.Ed. These are very interesting and intensive programmes which make the students different from other BEd trainees who are not getting exposure to these courses.

What are the factors that make this program the best for the students to opt for?

By pursuing Post graduate diploma in career guidance the teacher trainee can work as counselor/ child care counselor/ school counselor/ social worker in NGO. By pursuing a certificate course the child can work with special needs children/ home based special tutors/ Inclusive Education Teacher/ Parent Counselor for children with special needs/ Counselor for CWSN.

What are the best practices in the course you’re offering?

The college offers a BEd course on campus too. The course is mandatory to become a teacher. We offer best teaching practice in our institute. We always emphasize on Micro teaching, demonstration teaching, simulation teaching then teaching practice in nearby schools. Two of our alumnus got Punjab State Award for teaching. The college has a M.Ed. course which focuses on Research work. We are proud that our students are doing the best research under the guidance of faculty members of college. The faculty of our college are also supervising Ph.D. students.

What are some valuable insights of the program that you are offering at your institute/ dept.?

B.Ed. is essential to get a job as a teacher in a school. The main aim to pursue a BEd course is to learn how to teach Pedagogy subjects . Many of us have a vast amount of knowledge but when it comes to imparting it to others, it is a completely different task. In that way, the BEd course exactly helps us to do so.

How does the program ensure that students are being prepared for the future?

The courses offered by the institute cater to the needs of the future as it is mandatory to pursue B.Ed. to be a teacher and with the BEd course the college offers Inclusive Education programmed as well career guidance programmed too for better nation builders.

How did you train yourself/faculty to deliver this program to the students?

All the faculty members are eligible and trained. For day to day teaching they plan their lesson planning earlier. To achieve the goals of education, several committees and cells have been made. There are various clubs like cultural club, literary club, fine arts club, social service club. For the effective functioning of the work being assigned through these clubs to faculty members. For the effective skill in teaching part Micro skills are prepared by the teacher under the guidance of the principal after checking each skill and their demonstration lesson of the concerned subject.

How do you tend to build an industry connected with this program?

Education is an industry nowadays. Coaching is an emerging industry which is on boom and we train our students to cope with new strategies of teaching. We gave them exposure to online teaching methods. We make them train for making presentations, YouTube channels, Google classroom, Telegram channel etc.

What were the challenges that you faced while inculcating this program in your curriculum?

B.Ed. course was one year earlier. Nowadays it is a two year semester system. One major issue we faced is that the students have to visit school for teaching practice for a full semester. Schools hesitate to allow students to practice for a full semester, after the permission it is also impossible to check the student at school by college faculty members. This is the major challenge we face. Second challenge is about the semester system. The admission process of B.Ed. is time consuming and we are unable to start the session on time and we are not getting time to implement co curricular activities.

What are the types of projects that the students are working on through this program?

Students are working on various projects like community engagement, projects for differently abled children, old age home rehabilitation projects, research projects on different topics under the guidance of their respective guides for M.Ed.