About 15 lakh untrained teachers register for D EI ED course

About 15 lakh untrained teachers have registered with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to pursue an online diploma course in elementary education to become eligible for the teaching job by March 2019.

The enrollment data shared by the Central Government on Tuesday revealed that more than 75 percent of the total untrained teachers in the country are deployed in the private schools. A total of 3.53 lakh untrained teachers of government schools have registered for the course while the rest of the teachers have come from the private schools.

Bihar has the highest number of untrained teachers (2.85 lakh) registered for the course, followed by Uttar Pradesh (1.95 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (1.91 lakh and Gujarat (1.71 lakh). A total of 4,603 untrained teachers have applied for the NIOS course from Karnataka.

This came after Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar flagged off an 18-month long D EI ED (Diploma in Elementary Education) course. “With the registration of (about) 15 lakh untrained teachers for the NIOS course, we have made a tremendous world record,” Javadekar told reporters.

The online course has been designed by the NIOS to provide in-service training and a diploma to untrained teachers on completion of the programme as they would become ineligible for the teaching and lose their jobs if they do not acquire the qualification by March 31, 2019. Under the Right to Education Act, all teachers must have a D EI ED to teach in elementary schools.

As lakhs of teachers remained untrained tillMarch, 31 2015 and become ineligible for the teaching job under the RTE Act, the Centre recently brought an amendment to the law and fixed March 31, 2019, as the deadline for the untrained teachers to acquire a minimum qualification.

“They may have been hopeful of getting extension after extension in past. But, let me make it very clear that this is (Narendra) Modi government and there will be no further extension of this training programme after 31st March 2019. This is the last chance,” Javadekar said.

The Ministry announced NIOS' in-service programme for these untrained teachers earlier in July. Registration for the programme closed on September 30.

The course will be conducted by the NIOS online at 'Swayam'—a massively open and online course platform as well as at Swayam Prabha education channels. The self-study materials will be made available to the teachers in 10 languages including Kannada, English, Marathi, Telugu and English.

Out of nearly 15 lakh untrained teachers who have registered for the course, admission of about 12.79 teachers have been confirmed by the NIOS. The confirmation of admission in case of the rest of the teachers is pending either for the payment of registration fee or verification of their identity by their respective school principals.