Last Friday, Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, informed that NCERT has been given the status of a Deemed-to-be-University.
The minister, Mr. Pradhan, also inaugurated a new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory of the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), a constituent unit of NCERT.
Hereafter, the 'deemed university' status will now allow NCERT to offer its own graduate, post-graduate and doctoral degrees and have autonomy in terms of introduction of programmes, course structure, conducting examinations and management, among others.
Established in 1961, NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) has been an autonomous organisation of the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education.
NCERT on becoming a research university will offer opportunities for global collaborations and contributions to the global educational landscape.
In addition to this, NCERT will also be developing educational material in all 22 languages with the help of software like Anuvadini.
Mr Pradhan also emphasized developing content in mother tongue. Resently, India’s Science & Technology Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, also informed that Medical education has commenced in Hindi and soon Engineering studies will also begin in Hindi and translation of Engineering books has commenced in eight languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati & Bengali, across the country.
Further, Mr Pradhan also suggested setting up Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence labs in all 7 regional centres of NCERT. To make India the global hub of research and innovation these centres should be equipped with the latest technologies from around the world with future-ready infrastructure, he added.
The Minister also urged NCERT to standardize the Teachers’ training curriculum to NCERT in its Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).
The Minister also informed that NCERT has developed "Jadui Pitara" — a play-based learning-teaching material tailored for children between the age group of 3-8 years.
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