National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA)

The National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) is a capability-building programme for “Improving Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training”. The NISHTHA programme aims to build the capability of all the school principals and teachers at the elementary stage. 

The NISHTHA is an initiative of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) as part of its National Mission for improving the learning outcome at the elementary level under the Samagra Shiksha, Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

The functionaries at the state, block, district, and cluster level will be trained in an integrated manner on learner-centred pedagogy, learning outcome, new initiatives in education, school-based assessment, addressing diverse needs of children through multiple pedagogies, etc. 

The training under the NISHTHA programme is being organised by the State Resource Groups (SRGs) and the National Resource Groups (NRGs) at the State and National level. It aims at training 42 lakh teachers. A robust Management Information System (MIS)/portal for delivery of the training, support and monitoring mechanism is infused with this initiative. 

The NISHTHA has activity-based modules, including motivational interactions, educational games and quizzes, team building, social-emotional learning, in-built continuous feedback mechanism, preparation for the school-based assessment, training needs, online monitoring and support system and impact analysis (pre and post-training).

Implementation of NISHTHA

The NISHTHA training will be conducted directly by 33,120 State Resource Persons (SRPs) and Key Resource Persons (KRPs) identified by the States and UTs. These SRPs and KRPs will be trained by 120 National Resource Persons identified from the NCERT, NIEPA, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Non-Government Organisations, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and UNICEF.

Objective of NISHTHA

The objectives of the NISHTHA mega-training programme are:

• To equip every elementary stage teachers with learner-centred pedagogy, learning outcomes, school-based assessment, new initiatives in education to address diverse needs of children through multiple pedagogies, etc.
• To provide and monitor extensive support to the teachers through multiple modes up to the classroom level for improving the learning outcomes of the students.
• To orient school principals and state functionaries on learning outcomes, learner-centred pedagogy, national achievement survey and new initiatives in school education to extend support and monitor schools for implementing new initiatives.

Coverage Under NISHTHA

The NISHTHA programme aims to cover all the teachers and the Heads of Schools at the elementary level in all the government schools and faculty members of the State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), and Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators in every state and UT.

Areas Covered Under NISHTHA

The NISHTHA training programmes are conducted for school principals, teachers, School Management Committees (SMCs) and state, district, block, cluster level functionaries. 

This training aims to equip and motivate teachers for encouraging and fostering critical thinking in students, acting as first-level counsellors, and handling diverse situations. The NISHTHA aims to develop the skills in a joyful learning manner on the various aspects related to: 

• Learning outcomes, 
• Competency-based learning and testing, 
• Learner-centred 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. 

Quality training packages that contain modules related to the above areas are developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA). The States and UTs are free to contextualise the training modules and use their own resource persons and materials, keeping in view the expected outcomes and core topics of NISHTHA.

Expected Outcome Out of NISHTHA

• Development in the learning outcomes of the students.
• Creation of enriching and enabling inclusive classroom environment.
• Teachers become responsible and alert to the emotional, social and psychological needs of students as first-level counsellors.
• Teachers will be trained to use art as a pedagogy to increase creativity and innovation among students.
• Teachers are trained to strengthen and develop the personal-social qualities of students leading to their holistic development.
• Establishing a safe and healthy school environment.
• Integration of ICT in teaching-learning and assessment.
• Developing stress-free school-based assessment focusing on the development of learning capabilities.
• Teachers will adopt activity-based learning and move from rote learning to competency-based learning.
• Teachers and School Heads will gain knowledge of new initiatives in school education.
• Transformation of the Heads of Schools to provide academic and administrative leadership for the schools for fostering new initiatives.