Education
Central Government Initiatives to Improve the Quality of Education in North-Eastern Region
The Central Government has taken initiatives for improving the quality in school education in the country including NE Region. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 was held on 13th November 2017 for assessing the competencies developed by the children at the grade levels III, V and VIII.
The Central Government has taken the following initiatives for improving the quality in school education in the country including NE Region:
(i) The Central rules to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 have been amended and class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes have been shared with all States and Union Territories.
(ii) The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 was held on 13th November 2017 for assessing the competencies developed by the children at the grade levels III, V and VIII. The NAS district report cards have been shared with the States and UTs to help in identifying gaps at the district level and devise strategies for further improvement. Subsequently, a framework of intervention has been developed and shared with States to improve the quality of learning in the schools.
(iii) The online D.El.Ed. course was started from 3rd October, 2017 and 56,125 teachers from NE Region have successfully completed the training.
(iv) In order to provide e-learning material, different facilities like e- PATHSHALA, DIKSHA portal, SWAYAM (Study Webs to Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds), SWAYAM PRABHA DTH Channels have been made available by the Ministry.
(v) Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha launched in 2018-19, funds are given to all States and UTs for strengthening of infrastructure and provision of other facilities
in schools to ensure that all schools meet the prescribed norms, training of in-service steachers, headmasters and principals, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, provision of library grants to schools, ICT and digital initiatives, strengthening of teacher education institutions, Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat, etc.
(vi) An integrated Teacher Training Programme titled NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) has been launched to train around 3 lakh teachers and other functionaries in the NE States to make classrooms learner-friendly and improving children’s competencies.
(vii) MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix called Performance Grading Index (PGI) to grade the States and UTs.
Education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and majority of the schools come under the jurisdiction of the respective States and Union Territory (UT) Government which is the appropriate Government under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The recruitment, service conditions and deployment of teachers and other staff come under the purview of the concerned State/UT Government.
The information was given by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.