The School of Education (SoE) came into the recognition as an academic quest of NSOU in the year 2013. It was established with a view to provide quality inputs in Education as a liberal discipline and Teacher Education in particular to pre and in-service teacher and development of academic output in education and Special Education. The SoE has provided quality teacher education to a large number of in-service teachers to fulfil the mandate of RTE Act, 2009 within 2015.
At present the School offers RCI recognised and UGC approved programmes, viz, B.Ed. Spl. Ed. (HI/VI/I.D) and M.A. in Education. These two programmes are among the oldest academic programmes of NSOU. To achieve the integrity as well as to develop meaningful equity and access to M.A in Education, the introduction of BDP in Education was very much needed. With this backdrop, the University was successful to accord necessary approval from the DEB-UGC. None the less, BDP in Education/B.A. in Education is being introduced from 2018-19 academic sessions. NSOU is the only State Open University to receive a NOC from the RCI, New Delhi to conduct M.Ed. in Special Education (H.I/I.D)-ODL mode from 2020-2021 sessions under SoE.
In the purview of regular way of functioning, SoE keeps trend of intensive Personal Contact Programmes (PCPs) that is distinctive of NSOU. The School fervently awaits for the resuming of Ph.D programmes (Regular Mode) in conformity with revised UGC rules.
The curriculums of all the programmes have been framed to keep abreast with the changing nature of structure of knowledge in Education and Special Education. SLMs are also upgraded periodically to instil new ideas and innovations. The School is trying to reach its learners through ICT support to rejuvenate the academic mission of "Reaching the unreached". ICT support encompasses digitised SLMs, A/V lectures, Tutorial A-V Lectures and all type of academic and administrative support through the support service cell. A dedicated website (www.nsouict.ac.in) is being maintained for this purpose.
The faculties of the SoE are constantly engaged with various projects, workshops, seminar, and conferences to keep them in constant interactions with the wider academia.
Major Achievements:
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SoE NSOU takes the credit to successfully provide quality teacher education to a large number of In-service Teachers (29,515 Elementary) to fulfil the mandate of RTE-Act 2009 within 2015 in a project mode with the approval of NCTE. This course on a Project mode as per Government of West Bengal directive was offered in 183 Study Centres/B.Ed Institutions across West Bengal.
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In addition to this, faculties from SoE were invited to participate in a National workshop on "Making pre-service teacher education curriculum inclusive" organised by NCERT, New Delhi held at Mysore (preparation of the draft curriculum) and New Delhi (final draft of the curriculum was developed and adapted) respectively.
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SoE, NSOU has also taken other initiatives and undertaken collaborative assignments with other reputed organization like Backward class Welfare Dept. GoWB, TESS-India, Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), Gyan Vani and many more.
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Recently the SoE, has conducted 23 Training & Sensitization of key Functionaries of Central and State Govt, Local Bodies and other Services Providers on Disability issue. About 920 College and University Faculties, School teachers, Head Masters/Mistress have been sensitized in the various districts of West Bengal funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), RCI, New Delhi, Govt of India.
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Two 5-day National-level Refresher Programme, RCI funded (CRE equivalence) has been also conducted for aspiring special educators in the field of Research Methodology on Disability Studies and Rehabilitation.
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SoE has successfully completed a joint project with CoL-CEMCA, New Delhi on "Development of Curriculum and SLM on Capacity Building and Professional Development of Teachers and Teacher Educators for successful implementation of Inclusiveness".
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A 3-month self-financed certificate programme on "Capacity building and professional development on Inclusive Education" has been recently conducted successfully by the SoE. This course has been now upgraded to 6-month certificate course offered by the newly formed Centre, CDSER under the aegis of SoE, NSOU.
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KKHSOU has adopted the Course material of the Certificate Programme on Inclusive Education that has been developed under NSOU-CEMCA project for their ICT based intervention Programmes for School Teachers: An initiative by KKHSOU for quality School Education.
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One-Day National Conference-Call for papers (CRE Status) was also conducted straddling various stakeholders of the academia and disability field.
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The School is presently working with Abheda Foundation to empower language skills among the B.Ed. Spl. Ed learners.
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SoE was recently affianced and developed a "15-Day In-Service Training Module for 15,000 General Education Teachers of Tripura State" under a joint collaboration with the RCI and NSOU project".
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SoE has taken initiatives to organize various National seminars, conferences, workshops and Extension activities to disseminate new information and ideas in the realm of Education, Special Education and Teacher Education at even interval.