NEW DELHI, February 8: A meeting of Education ministers of States and Union Territories on improving teacher education in the country was convened at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi today with Union Minister of Human Resources Development Smriti Irani in the chair, a reliable source said.
Attending the meeting, State Education minister Moirangthem Okendro informed that training for untrained Elementary teachers in accordance to the provisions of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE) and guidelines of National Council of Teachers Education is going on in the State in a proper manner, the sour4ce added.
He drew the attention of the HRD Minister on the need for setting up Teachers Education College in the hill districts for imparting professional teacher education programmes including B Ed to facilitate quality education in the State, it said.
The meeting approved to form a high-level Committee to chalk out guidelines for internship for Teacher Education Programmes in the government schools. The committee will comprise Education Secretaries of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarkhand and Tripura besides representatives from NCTE and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathans, the minister informed, it added.
Okendro also informed that duration of the internship will be 20 weeks and after the completion the respective schools will give feedback on performance of trainees.
The report said the minister maintained that the gathering also unanimously resolved to review SCERT and DIET centres in the States and Union Territories by NCERT and give professional training to college principals by UGC.
Along with concluding to conduct a two/three days long workshop solely for Administrators of Higher Education in April or May this year, the meeting further resolved to formulate roadmap to address the grievances faced by the States in the field of Teacher Education.
In the important meeting, minister Okendro apprised the HRD minister of the present condition of Teachers Education in the Satte and inevitable problems encountered at present.
He said that as per the guidelines of RTE and NCTE, the State government is taking up works for giving training to 6583 In-Service Elementary Teachers under Department of School Education, Tribal Affairs & Hill and Social Welfare, it added.
The State government in collaboration with IGNOU had given training to 2700 teachers in 28 study centres in Open Distance Learning (ODL) Mode in January 2004 as first phase.
An amount of Rs 7.90 crores was sanctioned by HRD Ministry through SSA/SMA for the training. Altogether 2224 teachers are receiving training in the second phase which commenced from January 2015, Okendro elaborated.
The minister went on to say that necessary work for setting up six new BITE centres to provide training to Elementary Teachers is going on in full swing following the approval from the Central government.
Of the six centres, five will be set up in the hill districts while the remaining one will be established in the valley, he explained, informing that 90 percent of the total fund for the work is borne by the Centre.