New Delhi, (7/1/2019): The recruitment and service conditions of teachers are primarily in the domain of State Governments/UT Administrations. The Central Government through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha provides assistance to State Governments/UTs for additional teachers to maintain appropriate Pupil Teacher Ratio as per the requirements of the States/UTs.
The steps taken by the Central Government to improve teachers’ performance include, inter alia, regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, academic support for teachers and monitoring teachers’ attendance through School Management Committees/School Management Development Committees/Block Resource Centres/Clusters Resource Centres and encouraging States and UTs to use digital technology like installation of Bio-metric attendance system in schools. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education (PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools. PINDICS have been shared with State Governments/UTs to assess teacher’s performance.
Further, a four year B.Ed. integrated course to bring about qualitative improvement in teacher education programmes in India has been conceptualized and regulations for this course has been published in official gazette on 22nd November, 2018. The model curriculum prepared for this course includes crucial aspects like Gender, Inclusive education, ICT, Yoga, Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Health & Sanitation. The teaching specialization would primarily be for the primary levels and the secondary level.
Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) have developed a dedicated digital infrastructure for teachers, DIKSHA, with the aim to empower school teachers of the country with access to innovative tech-based solutions. DIKSHA is a unique initiative that leverages existing, highly scalable and flexible digital infrastructures, around the needs of teachers for effective teaching and administration.
Section 23(2) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has been amended to extend the period for training of untrained in-service elementary teachers to 31st March, 2019. As per above amendment, all untrained
in-service teachers working in Government, Government aided and Private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by the Central Government by 31st March, 2019. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through ODL (Open Distance Learning) mode. The online D.El.Ed. course has already been started from 3rd October, 2017. As on date (12.03.2018), 13,78,979 untrained in-service teachers have confirmed admissions at NIOS portal. The Central Government has been consistently pursuing the matter of improving quality of teachers, their expeditious recruitment and redeployment with the States and UTs at various forums.
This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Satya Pal Singh today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.
