Shikshak Parv: PM Modi Launches 5 New Education Initiatives, All You Need To Know

On a day dedicated to mark the contribution of teachers in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched five new initiatives to help the education sector in India grow. The initiatives are also expected to provide a kickstart to the government's New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Address teachers, students and other stakeholders in the education sector on September 7 during the inaugural ‘Shiksha Parv’ event, PM Modi said that the teaching-learning process has to be constantly redefined and redesigned to make the education sector in the country world-class.

The launch of the five initiatives marks the importance of not just policy-based but also participation-based transformations that are being undertaken in the education sector, the PM said. These transformations will play an important role in shaping India's future.

What are the five initiatives launched on Shikshak Parv?

1. The Indian Sign Language Dictionary (audio and text embedded sign language video for the hearing impaired, in conformity with Universal Design of Learning)

2. Talking Books (audio books for the visually impaired).

3. School Quality Assurance and Assessment Framework of CBSE,

4. NISHTHA teachers' training programme for NIPUN Bharat

5. Vidyanjali portal for facilitating education volunteers, donors and CSR contributors for school development.

The School Quality Assessment and Assurance Framework (SQAAF), which was operationalised on Tuesday, would address the deficiency of the absence of a common scientific framework for dimensions like curricula, pedagogy, assessment and infrastructure. It will also help in bridging the gaps related to inclusive practices and the governance process.

What did PM Modi say on the launch of the initiatives?

PM Modi expressed confidence that these measures will not only make India's education system globally competitive but also make the youth future-ready.

"We have to constantly redefine and redesign our teaching-learning process in order to make our education sector world-class. In this rapidly changing era, our teachers also have to learn about new systems and techniques rapidly. The country is preparing its teachers for these changes," he said in his address.

"If we are in the midst of a transformation period, fortunately, we also have modern and futuristic new National Education Policy. These transformations in the education sector are not just policy-based but also participation-based,” he added.

What is Shikshak Parv?

The Ministry of Education (MoE) is celebrating Shikshak Parv, 2021 from September 7-17 in recognition of the valuable contributions of teachers and to take New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 a step forward.

The theme of the ‘Shikshak Parv-2021’ is “Quality and Sustainable Schools: Learnings from Schools in India”.

The inaugural conclave will be followed by webinars, discussions and presentations up to September 17 in which the educational practitioners from various schools of the country have been invited to share their experience, learnings and the roadmap ahead. It is noteworthy that teachers and practitioners from even remote schools will be speaking on issues relating to quality and innovation in school.

The SCERT and DIETs in respective states will also be deliberating further on each of the webinars and suggesting the roadmap which will be consolidated by state SCERT. These will be shared with NCERT and provide inputs for curricular framework and teacher training modules.

The theme of webinars has been further segregated into nine sub-themes in the subsequent webinars such as Technology in Education: NDEAR, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: A Pre-requisite to Learning and ECCE, Nurturing Inclusive Classrooms, among others, to highlight the best practices and initiatives which can be adopted by schools of India.

(With inputs from PTI)