MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN PART (A) TO (D) OF THE REPLY TO LOK SABHA
STARRED QUESTION NO. 4 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.02.2019 ASKED BY SHRI
DHARMENDRA YADAV AND SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT REGARDING
SHORTAGE OF TRAINED TEACHERS
The Central Government has taken several initiatives to assess and improve the standard of
education in the country as follows:
1. In order to focus on quality education, the Central rules to the Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act have been amended to include reference on class-wise,
subject-wise Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi,
English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the
elementary stage have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs. These
serve as a guideline for State/UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning level.
2. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic
national surveys of learning achievement of children in classes III, V, VIII and X. Four rounds
of National Achievement Survey (NAS) have been conducted so far for class V and three rounds
for classes III & VIII. These reveal improvement in learning achievement levels of pupils, in
identified subjects from first round to fourth round. Further, a National Achievement Survey
based on learning outcomes was conducted for Classes III, V and VIII on 13th November, 2017
with a sample frame upto district level to enable states/UTs to identify gaps in learning outcomes
at district level and design strategies to address those gaps. Similarly, NAS for Class X was
conducted on 5th February, 2018. NAS Reports show students’ learning levels against the
expected learning outcomes of a particular grade and are used to provide feedback to the
districts for further improvement. The District Report Cards for the survey have been published
and also shared with the Hon’ble Members of Parliament.
3. Section 23(2) of the RTE Act has been amended to extend the period of in-service
training for untrained elementary teachers to 31st March, 2019 in all the States and UTs
including the States of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As per the 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 been started from 3rd October, 2017. More than 13.7 lakh
teachers have joined these courses, out of which 281118, 178102 and 7141 are from Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively.
4. A four year B.Ed integrated course to bring about qualitative improvement in teacher
education programmes in India has been conceptualised 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.
5. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been
notified on 11th January, 2019. The said Act provides to empower the appropriate Government to
take a decision as to whether to hold back a child in the 5th class or in the 8th class or in both
classes, or not to hold back a child in any class till the completion of elementary education. The
Act seeks to improve the learning levels of children and will lead to greater accountability and
improvement in the quality of education.
6. The Central Government has launched an Integrated Scheme for School Education –
Samagra Shiksha, from 2018-19 which subsumes the erstwhile centrally sponsored schemes of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher
Education scheme (TE). Under Samagra Shiksha, support is given to State Governments and UT
Administrations on several interventions to improve teaching standards, including inter alia;
regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training on
ICT Component, Inclusive Education, Gender Sensitization and Adolescent Education and
remedial teaching for academically weaker students and for strengthening of teacher education
institutions.
7. Government of India has decided to participate in the Programme for International
Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in 2021. PISA is a competency based assessment which unlike contentbased
assessment, measures the extent to which students have acquired key competencies that
are essential for full participation in modern societies. Learnings from participation in PISA
help to introduce competency based examination reforms in the school system and help move
away from rote learning. The CBSE and NCERT are part of the process and activities leading to
the actual test.
8. Rangotsav is an initiative of the Ministry aimed towards experiencing and celebrating the
rich cultural diversity of India. The events were held from 7th to 21st December, 2018 in schools,
with participation of students, teachers and other stake holders. Rangotsav was focused on
creating a non-judgmental platform for the participants to explore and express their artistic minds
through dance, music, theatre, painting craft making etc. The fortnight-long event promoted a
joyful learning environment with no restriction on expression of different forms of arts. It is a
gate way for each state to get exposed to the cultures, arts and languages of other States and UTs
and enrich the minds of students and enhance their thrust for knowledge.
9. Performance Grading Index (PGI)
In order to objectively evaluate the performance of the school education system in the
States/UTs, MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix to grade the States/UTs. The
indicators have been chosen after detailed stakeholder consultation and the information on these
indicators is drawn from the inputs provided by the respective States/UTs. This grading system
will assist the States and UTs to identify the gap and design appropriate interventions to bridge
them.
10. UDISE+ (UDISE plus)
Timely and accurate data is the basis of sound and effective planning and decision making.
Towards this end, the establishment of a well-functioning and sustainable Educational
Management Information System is of utmost importance today. Therefore from 2018-19, it has
been decided to launch the UDISE+ (i.e. UDISE plus application, so that it becomes an effective
tool for decision making. The entire system will be online and will gradually move towards
collecting real time data.
11. Project DIKSHA
In order to provide supplementary learning material for students and for upgrading the skills of
teachers, MHRD has developed a dedicated Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge
Sharing(DIKSHA) platform. The high quality e-learning material both for students and teachers
are being uploaded by Ministry and States/UTs on this portal. This is expected to substantially
augment the knowledge base of the students and technical skills of teachers at no additional cost.
12. The Central Board of Secondary Education( CBSE) has undertaken various examination
reforms for 2019 examination to promote competencies and quality of learning as follows:
<pre>
i. Change in design of question papers with nearly 33% increase in internal choice in all
major subjects for classes X and XII and introduction of objective type questions.
ii. The learning outcome developed by NCERT for each class to help teachers direct their
teaching learning in the desired manner and enhance the quality of learning in schools have
been introduced in CBSE affiliated schools.
iii. Experiential learning has been introduced from 2019-20 to promote self thinking, creativity
and effective study skills among students.
iv. In order to promote life skills and value education, CBSE has integrated health and
physical education with academics, as every school has to provide one period per day for
sports.
v. The marking scheme has been changed to give priority to creative, correct and relevant
answers given by students other than the ones mentioned in the marking scheme.
vi. More than 1 lakh teachers of CBSE affiliated schools have been trained for classroom
learning, life skills, sports mainstreaming etc.
</pre>
13. Curriculum Review
The NCERT has undertaken review of Syllabi and Textbooks developed by the NCERT as a
follow up of the National Curriculum Framework-2005 in 2017-18. All the textbooks of NCERT
developed as a follow-up of the NCF-2005 have been reviewed for updating. A portal for
teachers’ suggestions on the NCERT textbooks was created. Suggestions received from teachers
were analysed and incorporated if found appropriate in this review. Further, national initiatives
such as Clean India, Digital India, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Demonetization, etc., have also
been given space in the reviewed textbooks in integrated manner.
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