HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launches Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) – 2019 and Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) – 2019

New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) – 2019 and Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) – 2019 under Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) in New Delhi today.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that teachers are the base of education system and ARPIT is a great platform for teachers to learn about latest developments in their field and develop their teaching qualities. He said that for better results we need to increase the participation of teachers in this program. We need to create more engaging and impressive module to attract more teachers for ARPIT Programme.

Union HRD Minister suggested University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) that if we have to improve the standard of education then we have to focus on new things in the field of education. He further said that we have vision and mission, we just need better coordination. We should analyze in every three months, so that we do not lag behind in the race of the world. We should evaluate, so we can do better in future in world ranking, he added.

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The Minister appreciated LEAP programme and said that we can develop administrative capabilities and leadership for organizations through this programme. He further said that these leaders have the responsibility of bringing institutions to the world ranking. The Minister also suggested that the courses of Artificial Intelligence, from school education to Higher education level should be designed according to the needs of industrial sector. There is no dearth of talent among our students. Surely the best results will come out, he added.

Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP)-

To build higher managerial capabilities of existing higher education leaders and administrators and to draw fresh talent into the management of higher education systems, a National Initiative “Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP)” was launched to design and deliver a structured scheme of leadership development for HEIs. LEAP is a three weeks leadership development training programme (2 weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions. The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads that are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future. LEAP is being implemented through the following 15 institutions:

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Banaras Hindu University
Jamia Miliia Islamia
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata
University of Hyderabad
NIT Trichy
University of Delhi
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Indian Institute of Technology BHU
TISS Mumbai (CALEM)
AMU (CALEM)
NIEPA (CALEM)
The mandatory eligibility conditions are: minimum 8 years of experience as Professor; 3 years administrative experience; Impeccable Integrity; High academic standing preferably 30 publications in ‘SCOPUS’ indexed international journals or UGC approved journals; and age below 58 years.

A maximum of Rs. 10 Lakhs per participant (including foreign training) is approved and each training institution signs MoUs with its foreign counterpart. LEAP training institution prepares information brochures with relevant information, such as structure of the programme, Curriculum, Resource Persons, Pedagogical aspects, Assessment and evaluation and scheduled dates for Indian & foreign training. Each training module will have a batch of 30 trainees. At the end of the training, the trainees are evaluated on ten critical leadership attributes, namely, visioning & strategizing; communication skills; people management; conflict management & handling stress; decision making; Teaching Learning, research and innovation; financial planning and management; administrative skills; understanding students; and collaboration. In 2018-19, out of 15 LEAP approved Institutions, 12 have completed LEAP training with 280 participants , two are ongoing and DU is expected to conduct only one round.

In 2019-20, a centralized online selection process has been put in place and is now open for applying at http://nmtt.gov.in/ . The last date of registration is 25th September, 2019 and the institution-wise selections will be available by 27th September, 2019. The tentative LEAP (2019-20) Training Schedule is as follows:

Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) –

Ministry of Human Resource Development launched Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) in November, 2018. ARPIT is a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 1.5 million higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM. For implementing ARPIT, discipline-specific National Resource Centers (NRCs) are identified which are tasked  to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new & emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.

For ARPIT 2019, 51 discipline specific NRCs have been notified covering 46 disciplines, such as, Agriculture, Law, Architecture,  Social Sciences, Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Geography, Home Science, Tribal studies, Commerce, Library and Information sciences, Curriculum development, Humanities, Language Teaching in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi and English, Pharmacy, Skill development, Textile Technology, Management, Public Policy, Leadership & Governance, Library & Information Science, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Assessment and Evaluation, Pedagogy and research methods, Climate Change etc. The training materials have now been uploaded and made available through SWAYAM to all the teachers from 1^st September, 2019. Currently, registrations are open for the online refresher courses on SWAYAM platform, India’s own indigenous MOOC’s education engine and can be accessed https://swayam.gov.in/explorer?category=ARPIT

As on date, the enrolment for ARPIT 2019 is around 48,000. As part of popularizing ARPIT, NIC has sent bulk mails/SMS to all faculties in the relevant disciplines, which covers around 10 lakh faculty in HEIs.

In the inaugural year 2018, 75 NRCs were notified to cover a range of courses in different disciplines of Social Sciences, Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Humanities, Language Teaching, Commerce, Management, Education Planning and Administration, Public Policy, Leadership & Governance, Library & Information Science, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Assessment and Evaluation, Pedagogy and research methods, cutting edge areas of Nano-sciences, Internet of Things, etc.

Through ARPIT all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority have been given an enabling opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their disciplines through the technology based online refresher courses. Faculty can benefit from this initiative as it is highly flexible and can be done at one’s own pace and time. The NRCs will revolutionize professional development of faculty by catering to massive numbers by leveraging ICT and online technology platform of SWAYAM.

The NRCs initially develop a 3 minute video(s) which is assessed technically by AICTE and after having met the MOOC guidelines; the same have been approved and uploaded on SWAYAM Portal.  The course is a 40 hour module with 20 hours of video content and 20 hours of non-video content. They are offered in a highly flexible format and can be done at one’s own pace and time. There are built-in assessment exercises and activities as part of the academic progression in the course. At the end of the course, they will be a terminal assessment which will be an online examination in a proctored environment conducted by the National Testing Agency. All faculties who have successfully completed the online refresher course will be certified.

All in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority are requested to register and complete these refresher courses which will help them in career advancement. ARPIT course of 40 hours/duration is treated as equivalent to one Refresher Course for Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for promotion (UGC communication No. F.2-16/2002(PS) Pt.fI.II dated 3rd December, 2018)

A varied set of institutions such as, Centers under the Ministry’s Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) located in Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, State Universities; UGC’s Human Resource Development Centres( HRDCs), National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training (NITTTRs), IIITs have been notified as NRCs.

The First round of ARPIT 2018 stands completed in which there were 51000+ enrolments, 6411 faculty registered for examination. A total of 3807 faculty qualified.