Launch of Prashikshak - Teacher Education Portal tomorrow Prashikshak, the teacher education portal for District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) will be launched by the Honble Minister of Human Resource and Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani on 30th June, 2016 at Hall No. 4 Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The objective of Prashikshak is to help DIETs make informed decisions about their institutes, compare the performance of their institute against other DIETs in the state/country as well as help aspiring teachers make informed decisions about which institute to join. Prashikshak Portal has been developed by the Ministry of HRD in collaboration with Central Square Foundation. The major users of Prashikshak will be Pre-service teacher educators, DIET principals and faculty, Policy makers at District, State Government and National Level, and the General public. Thus, Prashikshak is a unique IT Initiative taken up by the HRD Ministry which would entail the establishment of a strong monitoring mechanism with a database of teacher education institutes with all relevant performance indicators. The programme will be webcast live on http://webcast.gov.in/MHRD and the Minister of HRD will also be interacting live with DIET representatives through Video Conference during the launch programme. DIETs were created under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE) for offering pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes for Government elementary school teachers. Currently, there are 588 DIETs functioning in the country with an intake of 98052 students and sanctioned faculty strength of 12647. Shri Upendra Kushwaha, Minister of State for HRD (School Education & Literacy), and Prof. (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria, Minister of State for HRD (Higher Education) will also grace the occasion. The event will be attended by State Ministers of Education, State Education Secretaries, State Director of SCERTs, Principal DIETs, senior policy makers and representatives of Autonomous Bodies such as NCTE, NCERT and NUEPA. GG/RT/AJ/RK/Prashikshak
