The National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) is an initiative to build the capacities of teachers and school principals at the elementary stage.
The initiative is an Integrated Teacher Training Programme of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD as part of its National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha during 2019-20.
The program aims to build the capacities of around 42 lakh participants covering all teachers and Heads of Schools at the elementary level in all Government schools, faculty members of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) as well as Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators in all States and UTs.
The training will be conducted directly by 33120 Key Resource Persons (KRPs) and State Resource Persons (SRP) identified by the State and UTs, who will, in turn, be trained by 120 National Resource Persons identified from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Non-Government Organisations and UNICEF.
The aim of this training is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first-level counselors. They will be oriented on and develop their skills on various aspects related to Learning Outcomes, Competency-Based Learning and Testing, Learner-centered Pedagogy, School Safety and Security, Personal-social qualities, Inclusive Education, ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence, Health, and well-being including yoga, Initiatives in School Education including library, eco-club, youth club, kitchen garden, School Leadership qualities, Environmental Concerns, Pre-school, Pre-vocational Education and School-Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.
Quality training packages containing modules related to aforesaid areas have been developed by the NCERT and NIEPA. States and UTs can contextualize the training modules and use their own material and resource persons also, keeping in view the core topics and expected outcomes of NISHTHA.