Improvement course for untrained teachers

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 6

Mere completion of a Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) by in-service teachers of government schools will not be enough for them to continue with their jobs now.

Teachers (graduate and undergraduate) not having 50 per cent aggregate marks (General category) and 45 per cent aggregate marks (reserved categories) at the senior secondary level will have to register themselves for improvement with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) portal for a senior secondary course. The diploma certificate will be issued only when the teachers secure more than 50 marks or above in the course.

More than 25,000 untrained in-service teachers of government schools in the state had recently registered with the NIOS after the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had set a deadline for school education departments across the country to train their untrained teachers before March 31, 2019, failing which they would lose their jobs. Under this, all untrained in-service teachers had registered with the NIOS portal in September this year.

Primary teachers (teaching up to Class V) have to compulsorily undergo the DElEd course even if they have passed Bachelors of Elementary Education (BElEd). However, upper primary teachers who had done BElEd need not require to apply for the DElEd course.

Sources said the untrained teachers who secured less than 50 per cent marks (general category) and 45 per cent marks (reserved categories) had to register with the NIOS online at www.nios.ac.in for improvement under stream-1 or stream-4 as a part of credit in one, two, three or four subjects.

In Jammu province, there are 13,667 untrained teachers, including 4,728 undergraduates and 8,939 graduates. The strength of Rehbar-e-Taleem (RET) teachers who were appointed on Class XII basis is between 3,000 and 4,000.

Mohammad Iqbal, Joint Director, Trainings, State Institute of Education, told The Tribune, “Yes, in-service untrained teachers of the state have to apply for improvement in case they have less than aggregate marks in terms of percentage.”

When asked about the exact figures of in-service government teachers who had secured less than 50 per cent marks at the senior secondary level, the Joint Director said, “The exact data is not available at the moment but the strength of untrained undergraduate teachers who registered at the NIOS last month was around 4,700 which has now increased to 6,500.”

The undergraduate untrained teachers will be trained through the District Institute of Education and Trainings in every district while the graduate untrained teachers will get training through the Indira Gandhi National Open University.