New Delhi, November 13: A day before Children's Day 2018, the Centre is set to launch two landmark initiatives - Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching (ARPIT) and Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) - aimed at upgrading the skills of teachers in India's higher education system.

ARPIT is expected to be undertaken by nearly 13 lakh teachers - cutting across government, state-aided and private universities. Under the programme, the academia members will enroll for a three-month online certificate course, government MOOC portal- Swayam. Govt Scheme on Encouraging Kids to Educate Illiterate Elderly Family Members Soon: Prakash Javadekar.

75 specialised disciplines have coordinated to prepare each refresher courses, aimed at new developments and concepts in their respective fields. Details of 68 of the 75 courses have already been uploaded on the Swayam portal.

Meanwhile, LEAP is aimed at enhancing the leadership skills of teachers. The programme was necessitated as experts have reiterated that academic institutes across the nation lack leadership deficits, which lead to students' and teachers' agitations which derail the functioning of varisities.

LEAP training module has been designed by IITs and IIMs, and its will be coordinated by IIT Kharagpur. Over 200 teachers will be trained under the programme this year, while the numbers are expected to rise from the next year with the government aiming to prepare 1.5 million faculty members for leadership roles over the next decade.

The deficiency in administrative and crisis management skills was red flagged last year, when agitations had briefly derailed the routine functioning of Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University and Manipur and Motihari Central University.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 13, 2018 10:25 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).