From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: In a big relief to the Meghalaya Government, the Centre on Thursday relaxed minimum qualification for appointment of teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
The relaxation was sought by Deputy Chief Minister, Prof R C Laloo, due to the non-availability of teachers possessing minimum qualifications as laid down by the National Council for Teacher Education, under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
In his meeting with the Union HRD Ministers, Prof Laloo had raised the issue time and again.
Along with Meghalaya,
the Centre has also given consent to a dozen others states including Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, which had sought permission to relax the minimum qualification for appointment of teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
To address this issue, the Government has sanctioned Rs 6300 crore project to strengthen teacher education in the country during the 12th Plan.
The main components of the revised scheme are setting up of new District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) and Institutes of Advance Study in Education (IASEs) as well as strengthening of existing DIETs, CTEs and IASEs.
The scheme also envisages establishment of Block Institutes of Teacher Education (BITEs) in 196 identified SC/ST/Minority concentration districts as elementary pre-service teacher education institutes. In addition, NCTE has given permission to respective State Governments
for training of the over 5 lakh in service untrained teachers through distance mode.
Meanwhile, the Central Government has requested the State Governments and the Union Territories to expedite recruitment of teachers as well as to carry out the redeployment of existing teachers to ensure that all schools have pupil-teacher ratios as laid down under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009. Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 19.82 lakh teachers have been sanctioned to States/Union Territories against which, 12.86 lakh teachers have been recruited till December, 2012.