12Lakh take exam for diploma in elementary education

Kolkata: Over 12 lakh untrained teachers across the country are taking the examination for two years diploma course in elementary education conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in pursuance of Prime Minister’s Digital India campaign.

The NIOS, formerly known as the National Open School, was established in 1989 as an autonomous organisation by Union human resource development ministry.

There are a total of 3186 examination centres across the country and 12,62,044 learners enrolled for the diploma in elementary education programme, an NIOS statement said on Friday.

The diploma programme is a specifically designed package for in-service untrained teachers working in primary or upper primary schools of different states of the country. “The programme, run in pursuance of the Prime Minister’s digital India campaign, is a unique example of usage of Informatic practise,” the statement said.

“For this course, right from the process of entrance to control of exam has been made online,” it added.

A total of 1,62,457 untrained teachers from West Bengal and 2,69,377 from Bihar are appearing for the three-day examination ending tomorrow, it said. From Assam, there are 1,16,930 untrained teachers taking up the test while it is 66,323 in Jharkhand and 52084 from Odisha. Besides, the numbers of examinees in Uttar Pradesh is 1,61,338, Madhya Pradesh 1,57,127 and Gujarat 8987.

If they fail this time they would get another attempt to clear it, a senior official of NIOS said.

On Friday, the teachers took examination in the subject of pedagogic process in elementary schools while on Saturday  it would be learning language at elementary level.

Under the Right to Education Act, it has become mandatory for every teachers to gain professional capability and around 14 lakh untrained teachers across the country would have to clear the elementary education programme by March 2019, failing which they might lose their jobs. 

The programme aims at enabling the target group to develop in them skills, competencies, attitude and understanding to make teaching and learning more effectively.