IGNOU, Tripura Inks MoC To Train 11,884 Teachers

New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)'s School of Education (SOE) had signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with the Government of Tripura to professionally train 11,884 untrained teachers of elementary level through IGNOUs two year Diploma in Elementary Education programme (in Tripura) through ODL mode and renews it for three years, said a statement from the open university.

The MoC was signed by Director SCERT, Tripura and Registrar (Admin), IGNOU in the university headquarters in Delhi.

The MoC, according to the release, confirms to conduct the training for only those teachers "who possess the qualifications stipulated as per the NCTE norms and are working in Govt. / Govt. recognized primary /elementary schools, are eligible for admission to the programme, subject to relaxation of marks for reserved category candidates, as per NCTE norms".

Both IGNOU and Government of Tripura shall develop a context specific block on elementary education in the State of Tripura. The objective of the block is to familiarize all enrolled teachers with dimensions of elementary education in Tripura. This is a compulsory value added input in the curriculum.

"Two years down the lane there was not much Training Learning Materials (TLMs) available for training the untrained teachers. The challenge for us was to come up with something that was meaningful and totally required to professionally upgrade the untrained teachers. Now, even the SCERT has developed a lot of materials for reference and IGNOU has also emerged to be strong. The DIETS/ teaching faculty are much trained today as compared to the past two years to carry forward this programme. While the SLMs can do their job, it is the practical component that should be organized by the state government for a successful completion of training them," said Prof. Poonam Bhushan, SOE, IGNOU, coordinator for the programme.

The training shall be conducted in a phased manner, enrolling only one hundred students per Programme Study Centre.

Prof. S.V.S. Chaudhary, SOE, IGNOU stressed that, "The programme must be implemented the way we have designed in IGNOU".

Other officials present during the MoC were Prof. Saroj Pandey, Director SOE, Directors of other Schools of Studies, Heads of Dviisions/ Units and other faculty members of SOE.