The new deadline for acquiring the prescribed minimum qualification as mentioned in Right to Education (RTE) Act has sparked a rush among the untrained school teachers as close to 15 lakh untrained teachers have signed up for the government’s Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) program.
C B Sharma, chairman on National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), said “Interestingly, the majority of the teachers — around 10 lakh — registered for the course are currently with private schools”.
NIOS is the largest open school board in the world and is tasked by the HRD ministry to run one time D.El.Ed under which all the untrained teachers will be trained before the deadline which is in March 2019. The deadline to get qualified was extended by the government this year from March 2015 to March 2019.
“In the six years(from March 2010 to March 2016), only 4 lakh teachers were trained. That is because there was no enabling environment. People were hopeful of the government granting extension after extension, but under the Modi government the message is clear. 2019 means 2019,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said at the launch.
Under the D.El.Ed program teachers will be trained in online mode and lectures for the program are served on the platform Swayam in the form of online videos and self-check exercises.
