IGNOU launches elementary education course for teachers

To help untrained teachers acquire professional skills in elementary teaching and meet the 2015 deadline of the Right To Education (RTE) act, a new diploma course has been launched by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an official said Saturday. The two-year diploma in elementary education will enhance the understanding and competency of teachers at "elementary-level teaching". Under the RTE, provisions related to the training of untrained teachers were given an extension and now have to be met by 2015. As a result, the Arunachal Pradesh government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IGNOU. "The teachers will be professionally trained by 2015 through a two year course as per the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) norms," said Srikanth Mohapatra, director, regional services division of the varsity. "The percentage of untrained teachers in Arunachal Pradesh is high. IGNOU has taken up the challenge to train 9,000 inservice teachers in the state," said Joseph Kuba, regional director, Arunachal Pradesh. IGNOU is the world's largest open university system with a pan-India and international reach with flexible entry qualifications and a wide range of academic programmes at affordable cost.