Thursday, August 22, 2019

NISHTHA (National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement) HRD ministry to launch teacher training project on August 22



NISHTHA (National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement) HRD ministry to launch teacher training project on August 22

NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019-20.

NEW DELHI: Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' launched the NISHTHA or National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement, an initiative to improve Learning Outcomes at the elementary level, today here. Touted as the world's largest teachers' training programme of its kind in the world, basic objective of this programme 'is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students' according to the education minister.The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has launched  the “world’s biggest project” for teacher training on August 22 to train over 42 lakh teachers across the country, an official said on Saturday.



NISHTHA (National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement) HRD ministry to launch teacher training project on August 22 /2019/08/NISHTHA-National-Initiative-on-School-Teachers-Head-Holistic-Advancement-training-to-teachers.html


On August 22, the MHRD will launch the world’s biggest project for teacher training called NISHTHA (National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement), under which more than 42 lakh teachers will be trained,” Rina Ray, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD, said. At an event organised here, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said, “India has traditionally been known for leadership in education and teacher preparation. For thousands of years, Indian teachers were considered as vishwa guru.”

The achievements of the ancient Indian education system were legendary, he said, adding that schools were the foundation of any progressive nation and teachers were the powerhouse of the society, who molded and shaped the future of students to become productive citizens of tomorrow. Ray said around 19,000 teacher-training institutes across the country were mapped and put on Google Earth. “Users can go online not only to see the geographical location of these institutes around the country, but also to check their report cards and give their feedback,” she added.

The aim of this training is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first level counsellors. They will be oriented on and develop their skills on various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, Competency Based Learning and Testing, Learner-centered Pedagogy, School Safety and Security, Personal-social qualities, Inclusive Education, ICT in teachinglearning including Artificial Intelligence, Health and well-being including yoga, Initiatives in School Education including library, eco club, youth club, kitchen garden, School Leadership qualities, Environmental Concerns, Pre-school, Pre-vocational Education and School Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.It is important to know that the teacher training programme has been named as NISHTHA i.e. National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement. The programme has been aimed at the holistic development of the teachers of the country who are the makers of the future of the nation. 

Quality training packages containing modules related to aforesaid areas have been developed by the NCERT and NIEPA. States and UTs can contextualize the training modules and use their own material and resource persons also, keeping in view the core topics and expected outcomes of NISHTHA.

The officials have been taking the initiatives in this regard and some steps have already been taken to start the NISHTHA program. The various teacher training institutes to provide the training to the teachers across the country have been mapped by the MHRD. Soon, the detailed data will be made available for the common people.

The main expected outcomes from NISHTHA are:
  1. Teachers are trained to develop and strengthen personal-social qualities of students for their holistic development.
  2. Transformation of the Heads of Schools into providing academic and
  3. administrative leadership for the schools for fostering new initiatives.
  4. Teachers adopt Activity Based Learning and move away from rote learning to competency based learning.
  5. Teachers and School heads become aware of new initiatives in school education.
  6. Developing stress free School Based Assessment focused on development of learning competencies.
  7. Teachers become alert and responsive to the social, emotional and psychological needs of students as first level counselors.
  8. Teachers are trained to use Art as pedagogy leading to increased creativity and innovation among students.
  9. Creation of an enabling and enriching inclusive classroom environment
  10. Integration of ICT in teaching learning and assessment.
  11. Creation of healthy and safe school environment.
  12. Improvement in learning outcomes of the students.



The lack of quality teachers in the educational sector and the lack of proper teacher training programme are the main reason behind this. The face of education needs to be changed and India has a lot to do in this domain. The new MHRD Minister has been taking all the pains to improve the standard of education and there are all likely chances that he will turn things around.

Frequently Asked Questions about NISHTHA

Question 1: Who all will be covered in Nishtha mega- training and how will it benefit the elementary school education?
Answer: This training programmes will be conducted for teachers, school principals, SMCs and state/district/block/cluster level functionaries and the programme will benefit the elementary school education through following ways:

I. All the teachers, principals, block resource coordinators, cluster resource coordinators working at the elementary stage will be covered for training on learner-centred pedagogy, learning outcomes, improving social personal qualities of children, school based assessment, new initiatives, school safety and security and pedagogies of different subjects, etc.

II.Similarly all the faculty members of DIETs, SCERTs, IASEs. CTEs, etc. will be covered for training on learner- centred pedagogy, learning outcomes, improving social personal qualities of children, school based assessment, new initiatives and pedagogies of different subjects, etc.

Question 2: How is Nishtha mega-training programme different from other training programmes?
Answer. The Nishtha mega-training programme is different from other training prohrammes in terms of its objectives, vision as well as the whole format of execution. The objectives of Nishtha mega-training programme are:

A. To equip all the elementary stage teachers on learning outcomes, school based assessment, learner –centred pedagogy, new initiatives in education and addressing diverse needs of children through multiple pedagogies, etc.

B. To monitor and provide extensive support to the teachers using multiple modes up to the classroom level, in view of improving learning outcomes of the students.

Question 3: Who all will be State Resource Person (Leadership) (SRPL)?
Answer: Principals/In-charge of schools already trained under the National Leadership programme of NIEPA.

Question 4: Who all will be Key Resource Person (KRP)?
Answer: Faculty members of SCERTs, DIETs, IASEs, CTEs and Teachers from Senior Secondary Schools identified by the states/UTs for building their capacities by the National Resource Persons.

Question 5: What will be the modalities of transaction of Nishtha mega training programme?
Answer: This programme will be conducted in customized cascade mode, in which National Resource Group of Experts will train Key Resource Persons (identified by the state/ UT for further teacher training) and State Resource Persons (identified by the state/ UT for further training of school principals and other functionaries). These KRPs and SRPs will directly train teachers and school principals. Master trainer's layer will be not be there in between. This will help in reducing the high percentage of communication loss which existed earlier, due to many layers.

Question 6: Who all will be National Resource Person (NRP)?
Answer: Educationists, Subject-Experts and Teacher Educators drawn from National level Institutions such as NCERT, NIEPA, etc. and Universities.

Question 7: What will be the monitoring and support mechanism provided in Nishtha mega-training?
Answer: An integrated monitoring and support mechanisms involving BRCs, CRCs, NGOs, KVs, NVs and CBSE schools will be set up at each stage to see whether the interventions provided during the training programme reach to classroom level.

To orient state functionaries and school principlas on learning outcomes, national achievement survey, learner- centred pedagogy and new initiatives in school education so that they are able to monitor schools and extend support to schools for the implementation of new initiatives.


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