Rethinking & Redefining Education : Guruशाला

To teach is to inspire, a teacher does that by helping their students, guiding them through and supporting through thick and thin. Gurushala therefore acts as a teaching aid for all the educators who are willing to enhance themselves, rethink and redefine their pedagogy skills to become a 21st century teacher.

“एक औसत दर्जे का शिक्षक बताता है. एक अच्छा शिक्षक समझाता है. एक बेहतर शिक्षक कर के दिखाता है.एक महान शिक्षक प्रेरित करता है.”,  विलियम आर्थर वार्ड

Over the period of time, education in India has transitioned. Conventional teaching focused on the four wall classroom setting, black-board, teacher’s desk and a teacher teaching a particular concept and the student follows has evolved into catering to ensuring a engaging class for all.With changing times and transformation in thought process, education is being witnessed critically from all the sections of society. The goal of modern education thus emphasizes on developing 21st century teaching skills to impact learning levels of students and enhance their individual capabilities as well.

Gurushala, an initiative of Indus Towers Ltd. and Vodafone India Foundation and  implemented by Pratham Education Foundation sowed the seeds of a digital education programme which aims to impact the learning levels of students by providing digital literacy and skill based training to teachers,enabling them to  rework pedagogical practices for their own classroom setting. With evolving times and technological advancement  led to development of an online teacher portal and in 2019, Gurushala was established, now part of more than 3500+ schools and catering to 21,000+ teachers.

www.gurushala.co with aim to provide self paced courses for in service teachers with an abundance of varied digital resources and a platform to connect with more than 21000+ teachers and discuss issues of classroom management. The most interesting feature of the website is Gurushala Staffroom where teachers from all around India connect, interact on various issues of classroom and at present times discuss how resources can be assisted for their online teaching. The interactions have connected teachers from north to south who would in any alternate universe have never met each other but now connect regularly to assist each other’s pedagogical needs through interactions.

Gurushala works with more than 30 school institutions to motivate and support the efforts of 21,000+ teachers from more than 15+ states across India. Assisting teachers & students to create one’s own lesson plan, adding to the compiled repository of multiple resources in Gurushala’s Digital Content Library & support in using resources to make teaching-learning process effective especially in the time of the lockdown and aiding in implementing the same when the schools start.

Gurushala- ‘Inspiring to teach’

How is it encouraging education in times of COVID-19? Who was aware of the current situation and that a pandemic could dissuade the course of action to a digital world! As a result, the programme fastened to help and reach out to maximum teachers so that learning doesn’t get restrained and every student makes the best use of time. Through campaigns such as Seekho Sikhao, teaching learning materials and resources were shared and the needs of teachers were catered regularly through the medium of Gurushala Whatsapp groups to assist and share resources regularly which can support their everyday classroom.

Enthralling webinars and subject expert sessions on contemporary topics involving cybersecurity for students, strategies to learn at home, focusing on mental health during lockdown were organized underlining collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking for teachers to embibe within their student circle. The free online self-paced courses and modules based on pedagogy, classroom management, social-emotional learning skills learning difficulties. Competitions and quizzes have been held for teachers and educators regularly to motivate teachers and their constant recognition to teachers through teacher spotlight which discusses the best practices delivered by teachers in their classrooms and initiatives teachers are taking for their students.  The programme wants to be available at every second to assist for which they have an efficient on-phone support for teachers to make sure their needs are met for ideas and queries in regards to technical aspects of education, pedagogy or strategies are often solved at a click of a call.


 It is indeed true that the perspective and experiences of a teacher will shape the future of children and thus Gurushala constantly provides online training with simple ideas that can be implemented in everyday classroom scenarios. It is a similar situation for one and all nation-wide, but the goal remains to help a student build the thought process which is not only restricted to books but assists in expanding the horizon. Hence, a mindful way of teaching and proper approach can bridge the gap in education systems and give opportunities to educators and teachers to deep dive into education and make complex processes like memorization, evaluation, analysis, comprehension simpler and fun!

The prospects are more skill and application based, moving beyond textbooks giving importance to experiential learning, analytical as well as critical thinking. Flipped classrooms and ICT based teaching and learning process  mark changes in teacher student relationship as well. There will be conundrums related to new job roles, responsibilities and adaptability to the pristine but a smart education shall prepare students for any circumstance. To facilitate a smarter way of learning, teachers and educators shall be equipped with best pedagogical practices imbibing innovation and growth!

To understand in depth on pedagogy and education, visit www.gurushala.co and connect with us! You can also reach us out at info@gurushala.co and we will assist you every step of the way! Check us out our campaigns and webinar notifications at our facebook page today: https://www.facebook.com/GuruShala01

Keep Inspiring to teach !

Article Written by Shubhangi Shukla