NCERT AND SCERT

NCERT

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organization set up in 1961 by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education. In addition to research, development, training, extension, publication, and dissemination activities, the NCERT is an implementation agency for bilateral cultural exchange programmes with other countries in the field of school education. The NCERT also interacts and work in collaboration with the international organizations, visiting foreign delegations and offers various training facilities to educational personnel from developing countries. The important activities of the NCERT are in six major areas which are research, training, extension, development, publication and dissemination and exchange programmes. 

Constituents 

          There are a number of constituents of the NCERT through which it provides academic and technical support for the improvement of school education. They are:

1.      National Institute Of Education (NIE), New Delhi

2.  Central Institute Of Educational Technology(CITE), New Delhi

3. Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute Of Vocational Education (PSSCIVE), Bhopal

4. The Four Regional Institutes Of Education (RIE) At Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Mysore

5.     Field Advisor’s Offices In The States

Objectives of NCERT 

·  To launch, organize and strengthen research works in various aspects of education.

·     To ensure success of the process, a good no of curricular/learning materials have to be brought out by the NCERT.

·     To arrange for pre-service and in-service training at the higher level.

·     To provide guidance and counselling services on large scale.

·    To establish a National Institute of Education and manage for the development of research and higher training for educational administration and teachers.

·   To publish necessary textbooks, journals and other literature for achieving the objectives.

·   To organize extension centres in training institutes with the cooperation of state governments and extend facilities pertaining to new methods and technologies among them.         

Major functions of NCERT 

          The functions of NCERT broadly relate to (a) research and development, (b) in-service and pre-service training, and (c) extension and dissemination work- all these tuned to achieve the main objective of improving the quality of school education.

The NCERT, therefore

·    Develops curriculum, instructional and exemplar materials, methods of teaching, techniques of evaluation, teaching aids, kits and equipments, learning resources, etc.

·     To monitor the administration of NIE/ Regional colleges of education.

·  To prepare and publish study material for students and related teacher’s  handbooks.

·    To  organize pre-service and in-service training of teachers, teacher educators and other educational personnel;

·     To undertake aid, promote and co-ordinate research in all branches of education for improving school-education.

·      Conducts and promotes educational research.

·    To search talented students for the award of scholarship in science, technology and social sciences.

·  Disseminates improved educational techniques and practices and research findings.

·   To undertake functions assigned by the Ministry of education (now HRD) for improving school-education.

·    Acts as a cleaning house for ideas and information on all matters relating to school education and teacher education.

SCERT

State Council for Educational and Training (SCERT) is an apex body, responsible for quality education in the state. The State Institute of Education (SIE), which functioned as a part of the department of general education, was converted to form the SCERT, to give a new thrust and direction to school education. SCERT, Kerala, was established in 1994.

 It is an autonomous body entrusted with planning, implementation and evaluation of all academic programs from pre-school to higher secondary levels. SCERT is concerned with academic aspects of school education including formulation of curriculum, preparation of textbooks, teacher’s handbooks and teacher training. It advises the Government on policy matters relating to school education. 

Structure and functioning of SCERT

For all academic purposes SCERT functions as an autonomous body. The Director under whose guidance and advice the programmes are carried out by the academic staff heads. The State Government has formed two bodies to guide and monitor the functioning of SCERT. The Hon. Minister chairs the General Body of SCERT for Education. The General Body plans and gives directions for the functioning of SCERT. The Governing Council, with Secretary, General Education as Chairman and Director of Public Instruction as Vice- Chairman, attends .to all academic and administrative matters of SCERT. All programmes of SCERT are carried out with the approval of the Governing Body. SCERT works in tandem with the Directorate of Public Instruction to operational the policies of the state government in the sector of school education.

The Departments functioning within SCERT are Curriculum Textbook and Evaluation, Teacher Education and Extension, Educational Technology, Special Education Research Documentation and Dissemination, Primary Education, Pre-primary Education, Non-formal Education, Population Education, Educational Psychology, Program Evaluation, Vocational Education, National Talent SEARCH Examination.

Functions

·       It prepares hand book and other instructional materials for teachers, helpful for making instruction modern and technology oriented.

·   It acts as an agent of change in school education, non-formal education and teacher education in the state.

·      It is directly and indirectly connected with the in-service training of primary and pre-primary teachers by giving administrative and managerial leadership to the activities of the DIETs.

·     To develop State curriculum frame work for school education, review and revise syllabi, scheme of examination and evaluation, prepare question papers etc for school education.

·     To function as a nodal agency for the implementation and monitoring of national level educational projects such as DPEP, MLL, SSA etc.

·    To plan and implement educational projects for enhancing the qualities of school education and elementary teacher education.

·    To provide extension services to the Teacher Training Institutions at all the levels in the state.

·    To function as a controlling authority essentially in connection with the academic aspect of elementary teacher education.

·  To prescribe curricula and text book for the schools (STD 1 to 9) and TeacherTraining Institutions at the pre-schools and elementary stages.

·     It conducts research studies the finding of which is transmitted to teachers for making their work dynamic.