NISHTHA program to cover 42 lakh teachers at elementary level: HRD Minister

The aim of this training is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first-level counselors.

The Department of School Education and Literacy has launched a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme called NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019-20. The aim of this training is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first-level counselors.  They will be oriented on and develop their skills on various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, Competency-Based Learning and Testing, Learner-centered Pedagogy, School Safety and Security, Personal-social qualities, Inclusive Education, ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence, Health and well-being including yoga, Initiatives in School Education including library, eco-club, youth club, kitchen garden, School Leadership qualities, Environmental Concerns, Pre-school, Pre-vocational Education and School-Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.

This integrated programme will cover around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and Heads of Schools at the elementary level in all Government schools, faculty members of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) as well as officials and Resource Persons from Block Resource Centres (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) in all States and UTs.

 National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been notified as an Academic Authority under Section 23(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 to lay down the minimum qualifications required for a person to be appointed as a teacher. Accordingly, the NCTE has notified the minimum qualifications to vide notification dated 25th August 2010 as amended from time to time.

This massive capacity building programme has been integrated with technology to ensure smooth facilitation, availability of digital content and technology-enabled teaching methods to support the teachers. A Mobile App and Learning Management System (LMS) have been developed by NCERT (https://nishtha.ncert.gov.in/). LMS is being used for registration of Resource Persons and Teachers, dissemination of resources, training gap and impact analysis, monitoring, mentoring and measuring the progress online.

The information was given by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

(With Inputs from PIB)