Over 9,000 teachers participated in CBSE's capacity-building programmes: Govt tells RS

NEW DELHI: More than 9,000 teachers participated in capacity-building programmes conducted by the CBSE on various skill subjects and modules during the 2025-26 academic session, the government told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar said skill education has been integrated into the school education system as a regular component for students of classes 6-12 under the Samagra Shiksha scheme.

"The scheme is implemented uniformly across all States and UTs, including tribal and aspirational regions, based on the proposals received from the respective State/UT Governments and approved under the Project Approval Board," he said.

During the 2025-26 academic session, the CBSE offered 22 skill subjects at the secondary level in Classes 9-10 and 43 skill subjects at the senior secondary level in classes 11-12, Majumdar said.

"The curricula include employability skills as well as subject-specific theoretical and practical components," he added.

The minister said awareness and orientation programmes are organised also for principals to familiarise them with initiatives relating to skill education under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE), 2023, he said.

"During the academic session 2025-26, more than 9,000 teachers participated in Capacity Building Programmes conducted by CBSE on various Skill Subjects and Skill Modules," the minister said.

Majumdar said skill or vocational education has been integrated into the school curriculum to foster employability and dignity of labour from foundational levels.

The NCF-SE, 2023, aligned with NEP 2020, institutionalises skill education by integrating it directly into the middle and secondary stages to ensure parity with academic subjects. Adequate learning hours have been allocated for vocational crafts to build foundational skills, practical awareness and to develop grade appropriate skill competencies, he said.

On higher education reforms, Majumdar said four-year undergraduate programmes have been introduced from the 2022-23 academic session in 45 central universities funded by the UGC or Ministry of Education.

The UGC has also undertaken initiatives including the Curriculum and Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programmes, National Higher Education Qualifications Framework, National Credit Framework, the Academic Bank of Credits, besides guidelines for transforming higher education institutions into multidisciplinary institutions, he said.

On learning outcomes, the minister said the findings of the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 showed "a significant improvement" over the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 scores in foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

"Central Government schools demonstrate the strongest performance in all subjects at the preparatory and middle stage," he said, adding that this suggested returns from improved infrastructure and increased per child spending in such schools.

The minister said the UGC e-resource portal has been integrated with the Digital Seva Portal, a platform operated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for the delivery of digital services in rural areas through the Common Service Centres (CSCs) network.

The minister also said that educational content is delivered round-the-clock through DTH channels (Swayam Prabha), while PM e-Vidya includes 200 DTH TV channels and 400 radio channels to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for Classes I-XII.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA), the national digital platform for school education, provides quality e-content along with QR-coded textbooks for all grades, Majumdar said.

States, Union Territories and autonomous bodies participating in DIKSHA have generated and contributed more than 3.67 lakh content in local and regional languages, he added.