One of the major objectives of Samagra Shiksha is strengthening and upgradation of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs)/ State Institutes of Education (SIEs) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) as nodal agencies for teacher training. Accordingly, provisions are provided for strengthening of Physical Infrastructure, Establishment of new DIETs, Salaries for Teacher Educators, Technology Support to Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) such as SCERTs, DIETs and BITEs, Annual Grant for TEIs, Programme and Activities including Faculty Development, Specific Projects for Research activities. Moreover, SCERT being the nodal agency for Teacher Training develops a consolidated calendar of annual in-service training for elementary, secondary and senior secondary school teachers and also for teacher educators in SCERTs and DIETs.
The following are the major initiatives and achievement in Teacher Education:
- Introduction of 4 Year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) in a multidisciplinary environment: The program aims at preparing teachers for Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary stages as per the new school structure of NEP2020. It will ensure that outstanding students enter the teaching profession. A student undergoing this course will be grounded in Indian values, languages, knowledge, ethos, tribal tradition and also well versed in latest advances in education and pedagogy. This course caters to the need of 21st Century skills.
- Guideline on Strengthening of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), 2017: As per the NPE (1986), DIETs were envisaged for In-service as well as pre-service education. However, over the years, the focus had gradually shifted to pre-service education. Moreover, currently, there is no nodal agency with expertise in in-service training and thus to address this challenge, the Ministry of Education has developed a Guideline on strengthening of DIETs. Accordingly, States have been encouraged to do a district wise analysis before considering a reconceptualization of DIETs as per the models proposed in the Guideline. This will also allow flexibility of getting more expertise into in-service teacher training.
- Strengthening of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), 2018: Given the expansion of school education in last decade due to RTE 2009 and increase in demands for inclusive education,, appraisal of SCERTs was felt important to strengthen SCERTs by analyzing its strengths and weaknesses and to address the gaps within the institution and its linkages with other institutions. MOE has developed a comprehensive concept paper on ‘Strengthening of SCERTs’ which focuses on restructuring of SCERT, convergence and linkages between different support structures and SCERT as a nodal agency for in-service teacher training.
- Amendment of the RTE Act for Training of In-service Untrained Teachers: The Amendment to the Section 23(2) of the RTE Act to extend the period for training of untrained in-service elementary teachers to 31st March, 2019 was passed by both the houses of Parliament on 1st August, 2017. As per the amendment all untrained in-service elementary teachers working in Government, Government aided, and Private unaided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by the Central Government, by 31st March, 2019. This was to ensure an improvement in the overall quality of teachers and teaching processes, and consequently learning outcomes of children. The course started from 3rd October, 2017 and a total of 9643007 teachers have successfully completed the training.
2 minutes, 23 seconds
