Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the inaugural conclave of Shikshak Parv on Tuesday at 10:30 am through video conferencing. The Prime Minister will also launch multiple key initiatives in the education sector during the event.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office, PM Modi will launch Indian Sign Language Dictionary (audio and text embedded sign language video for the hearing impaired, in conformity with Universal Design of Learning), Talking Books (audiobooks for the visually impaired), School Quality Assurance and Assessment Framework of CBSE, NISHTHA teachers' training programme for NIPUN Bharat and Vidyanjali portal (for facilitating education volunteers/ donors/ CSR contributors for school development).
The theme of 'Shikshak Parv-2021' is "Quality and Sustainable Schools: Learnings from Schools in India". Its celebration will encourage innovative practices to ensure not only continuity of education at all levels but to improve quality, inclusive practices, and sustainability in the schools across the country as well, the PMO said.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is celebrating Shikshak Parv, 2021 from September 5-17 in recognition of the valuable contributions of teachers and to take New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 a step forward.
"The National Award to Teachers will be conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind through a webinar on September 5 due to the COVID-19 situation," a senior MoE official told PTI.
"For the year 2021, online self-nomination process was followed by a three-tier selection process at district, state and national level. A documentary film on each of the 44 awardee teachers will also be shown," he added.
The National Awards to Teachers were first instituted in 1958 to recognise the excellence and commitment of teachers in shaping the minds as well as the future of the youth. From the mid-60s onwards, September 5 came to be the fixed date for the function on account of the birthday of Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, former president of India and an eminent educationist.
The award is to accord public recognition to meritorious teachers working in elementary and secondary schools.
"On September 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the teachers, students, parents and stakeholders associated with education. He will be launching five initiatives of the Department of School Education," the official told PTI.
"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 official said.
"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," he added.
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 ANI and PTI)
