Nagaland joins mission to improve learning outcomes at elementary level
Menukhol John, Principal Secretary for School Education & SCERT Nagaland with others during press conference on January 27. (DIPR Photo)
NESHTHA first phase of training to commence from today
Our Correspondent
Kohima | January 27
The Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry Human Resources Development (MHRD) is launching a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme called NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement) under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019-20.
This was announced in press conference here today by Menukhol John, principal secretary for school education & SCERT Nagaland in the presence of Kevileno Angami, State Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha, Nagaland, Shanavas C, principal director school education, Wongthungo Tsopoe, director school education and other officials.
This integrated programme aims to build the capacities of around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and heads of schools at the elementary level in all government schools, faculty members of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) as well as officials and Resource Persons from Block Resource Centres (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) in all States and UTs.
With this huge coverage, NISHTHA Programme is perhaps the largest such initiative in the entire world.
This training will be conducted directly by 33120 Key Resource Persons (KRPs) and State Resource Persons (SRP) identified by the State and UTs, who will in turn be trained by 120 National Resource Persons identified from National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCLRT), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Non-Government Organizations and UNICEF.
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 teaching-learning 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.
Main expected outcomes from NISHTHA
The main expected outcomes from NISHTHA are; Improvement in learning outcomes of the students, creation of an enabling and enriching inclusive classroom environment, teachers become alert and responsive to the social, emotional and psychological needs of students as first level counselors.
Teachers are trained to use art as pedagogy leading to increased creativity and innovation among students.
Teachers are trained to develop and strengthen personal-social qualities of students for their holistic development.
It also expects to create healthy and safe school environment, integration of ICT in teaching learning and assessment, developing stress free School Based Assessment focused on development of learning competencies, teachers adopt Activity Based Learning and move away from rote learning to competency based learning.
Also teachers and school heads become aware of new initiatives in school education and transformation of the Heads of Schools into providing academic and administrative leadership for the schools for fostering new initiatives.
Post training activities
NISHTHA will ensure a comprehensive monitoring and mentoring mechanism through embedded post training interventions. After the completion of KRP training, NRPs will regularly be in touch with the KRPs through WhatsApp, Facebook groups etc and personal interactions.
Once the training of one batch is completed at block level, one KRP for each 130 teachers will be identified as a mentor. The Mentor will be responsible for continuous guidance, feedback and monitoring so that a quality circle is created enabling them in building pedagogical skills and connecting with peers, thereby creating a long term sustainable impact on classroom transactions.
NISHTHA web portal (LMS) is an interactive portal which will enable post training follow ups. The cycle wise "Training Reports" of about two pages (as infographics) will be uploaded by each state/UT.
Post training, the best pedagogic practices adopted by each teacher can be shared on the portal. For this purpose, each school is required to create their own Youtube channel, upload the best practices, success stories, videos (one/two minutes) first on their own channel and share the link on NISHTHA for showcasing purposes. Selection of best practices and state and UT wise playlist shall be done by NCERT.
Teachers' submissions will be evaluated by the mentors and appropriate feedback will be provided to the teachers and also on-line support (reference material, interaction with mentor, etc.) will be provided to the teachers.
To facilitate continuous interaction of NRG with SRG, and SRG with Teachers, subject wise forums have been created to provide lifelong learning support and academic guidance to every single teacher.
Teachers can share classroom problems and issues and help each other to have an inclusive environment and ensure learning by all.
NISHTHA implementation for Nagaland
• All states & UTs India including Nagaland will be partners in implementing the programme.
• The main objective of the NISHTHA is to improve learning outcomes which is a critical need in Nagaland.
• NISHTHA Training programme shall be jointly implemented by the SCERT, School education and Samagra Shiksha in five phases to be completed by March 2020 as per the Ministry directive.
• The first two phases shall commence on January 28 in all the 11 districts- 28 January- 1 February and 4 February-8h February 2020 to be implemented by the district/block nodal officers & coordinators. Each phase shall comprise of 5 days training programme.
• The first two phases shall cover 7250 Elementary teachers and head teachers. There are 113 SRPs trained by the NRPs in Nagaland as resource persons. The entire training programme shall cover 16,872 Elementary teachers and head teachers in the state of Nagaland.
• There will be a break after the completion of the second phase in view of the HSLC/HSSLC Examination.
• The remaining phases shall resume in the month of March 2020.Training modules developed by NCERT shall be printed and distributed to the trainees.
• The Samagra Shiksha has set up a control room at its office with 7 MIS personnel to monitor and update the status of training conduct district-wise.
• They will also provide technical support to the Districts/Blocks.
• The conduct of NISHTHA Programme shall be closely monitored by the School
• Education Department, SCERT & Samagra Shiksha.
• All the Elementary Teachers, Head Teachers and SRPs deputed to participate in the NISHTHA training shall be made mandatory.
