Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday asked the untrained school teachers to register at 'Swayam' by September 15 and pursue an online diploma programme in teaching to become qualified for the job until March 2019.
"This is the last chance for you. If you do not acquire required qualification by 2019, you will lose your job," he said while addressing a function organised to confer national awards on the best of the school teachers of the country on the occasion of the Teachers' Day.
About 11.09 lakh untrained teachers with no basic qualification in teaching are deployed at elementary schools across the country even as the Right to Education (RTE) Act stipulates that they must have a diploma in elementary education (D El Ed) first in order to be recruited for the teaching job.
As most of the States failed to get these teachers undergo in-service training and acquire the basic qualification in teaching by March 31, 2015, the Centre recently amended the RTE Act to extend the deadline by two more years so that all untrained teachers pursue a D.EL.ED programme and get a diploma to retain their job.
HRD Minister recently announced that such teachers can consider pursuing a D El Ed programme at 'Swayam,' a platform created to conduct massive open and online degree, diploma and certificate courses online. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will conduct the 18-month long programme.
Addressing the event, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu asked teachers to imbibe "spirit of nationalism" among school students. He also asked Javadekar to revise the school curriculum “to give due importance to India's culture, heritage and value system.”
He also called for keeping the atmosphere of the university campuses free from trouble. “Educational institutions are temples of learning. We must not pollute their atmosphere,” he said, without taking the name of any university.
The Vice President made a strong pitch for use of mother tongue in teaching-learning, saying that students should learn more than one Indian languages.
“Social harmony and peace are the need of the hour. We must learn to live together. I have no problem with English. But what is this Mummy, Daddy...? Call Amma or Ammi once and then you realise that these words come out from your heart,” he said.
Vice President conferred the national award on a total of 319 teachers under various categories at the function.
Published 05 September 2017, 13:07 IST