Thursday, 21 July 2011

Rs 400cr for teachers' training

The state human resource development department has got around Rs 400 crore from the Centre to train teachers and augment infrastructure of schools. 

However, the money sanctioned was Rs 100 crore less than what the state had asked for. 

Participating in the 15th board meeting of theRashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) here on Wednesday, officials of the state HRD department laid emphasis on building infrastructure and teachers' training. 

The two-day RMSA meeting was chaired by union HRD secretary Anshu Viash who attended the presentation made by four states Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand. 

State project director (secondary education) Mukesh Sinha presented before the panel a proposal for augmentation of 312 existing schools' infrastructure and opening up of 300 schools to meet the targets of the RMSA. The main focus of Jharkhand is to get the teachers and headmasters trained so that quality of education in secondary schools be improved, Sinha said. "Appointment of teachers is the prerogative of the state government and we are initiating a process to make appointments against the vacancies but the RMSA funds will be utilized to train the existing manpower." 

The RMSA aims at ensuring 100% enrolment of students in secondary schools by 2017 and 100% retention of students by 2020. 

Representing the state, director in charge of secondary education Abha Kusum Tirkey said the state had proposed a budget of around Rs 500 crore. 

"The state has been given Rs 400 crore. Given the fact that Orissa was successful in getting Rs 1,100 crore for the state, the amount approved for Jharkhand is meager," said Sinha. 

Sources in the state HRD department said structure of secondary education had not been revamped in the past 20 years leaving a lot of scope for seeking central funds to improve the infrastructure and to get teachers trained through the module suggested by the union ministry. 

The directorate of secondary education has proposed to organize five-day in service training of 6,000 teachers, whereas in a separate programme around 550 headmasters will be trained on the lines of management training to enhance their skill in managing the entire functioning of schools. 

The training programme will be conducted by the Jharkhand Council for Education Research and Training. 

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