Mysore/Mysuru: A five-day online training-cum-workshop on Testing & Evaluation and Item writing for the Assistant Professors / Lecturers / Teachers (Secondary and Higher Secondary) and Research Scholars across India and who are engaged in the teaching of Tamil (language, linguistics and literature) began at National Testing Service-India (NTS-I) of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, on Sept. 13 (Monday).  

Prof. P. R. Dharmesh Fernandez, Deputy Director of CIIL and Head, CT&E briefed about the activities undertaken by CIIL and its schemes.  He also highlighted the importance of testing and evaluation methods in the current education system including competitive exams. 

Dr. Pankaj Dwivedi, Officer In-charge of NTS-I, welcomed and briefed the participants about the objectives of the programme as well as about NTS-I activities.  

Dr. L.R. Prem Kumar, OIC, BVP, who was also present on the occasion, said that teaching and testing are the two faces of the same coin. So, a teacher must evaluate the progress of student in every step of learning. 

Prof. P. Ratnasabapathy, former Director, TIERA, Chennai; Prof. T. Sethupandian, former Professor of Linguistics, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai; Prof. Sam Mohanlal, former Professor-cum-Deputy Director, CIIL; Dr. M. Balakumar, former Head, NTS-I, CIIL; Dr. V. Ilangovan, formerly SRP of NTS-I  and NTS-I faculties Dr. R. Shakunthala, Dr. A.R. Muthukkaruppan, Dr. A. Eswaran and technical JRPs  Ancy Thomas, K.S. Raghavan,  Dr. Amit Kumar Jha and Kashyap will train the participants in various academic and technical sessions. 

Dr. Pankaj Dwivedi, Lecturer- cum-Junior Research Officer, CIIL & Officer-In charge, NTS-I is the Coordinator and Dr. Prem Kumar, Lecturer-cum-Junior Research Officer, CIIL & Officer In-charge of Bharatavani Project is Co-coordinator of this workshop. Prof. Shailendra Mohan, Director, CIIL, Mysuru is the overall patron of the workshop. 

About 126 Assistant Professors, School Teachers and Research Scholars, who are engaged in teaching of Tamil from various Schools, Universities and Colleges of India, are participating.