IGNOU has launched a new two-year diploma

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) School of Education (SEO) has recently launched a new two-year diploma in elementary education (DEIED), offered in ODL mode, for in service teachers to improve their understanding and competency at elementary level teaching.

M. Aslam, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, said, “When we are signing an MoU with the state government, then we are sure of its competency and effective results. Taking into consideration hilly areas like Arunachal Pradesh, ICTs should be effectively and largely used. There will be a regular ICT interaction schedule from the headquarters to the regional centre at Arunachal Pradesh for effective monitoring.”

Mahendra P Lama, pro vice-chancellor, IGNOU, felt that this MoU shall have wider and deeper implication as it will going to affect the school going students. Talking about the memorandum, Srikanth Mohapatra, director, regional services division, IGNOU, said, “The arrangement is being made by the state government in order to meet the deadline set by the Right To Education Act, according to which, all the in-service, government, untrained elementary teachers should be professionally trained by March 2015 through a two-year DElEd programme as per the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) norms, failing which, they may lose their jobs.”

Joseph Kuba, regional director, Andhra Pradesh, IGNOU, said, “In terms of the percentage of untrained teachers in Arunachal Pradesh, the figures are highest. Now, because of RTE, it is mandatory for teachers to undergo a two-year degree recognised by NCTE. Ignou has taken up this challenge to train 9,000 in-service teachers in Arunachal Pradesh. For this, we are activating new centres (approved by NCTE), which are called Block Resource Centres (BRCs) only for DElEd programme.”

This MoU was inked by Rajesh Kumar Mishra, IAS, sate project director, Sarva Shiksha Abiyan Rajya Mission, Arunachal Pradesh and SVS Chaudhary, registrar, administration, IGNOU.