In the year 1954 College of School Education for the state was established in Solan, Himachal Pradesh.
Later on in the year 1970 it was converted into State Institute of Education (SIE) and was entrusted the task of preparing programmes and policies from Primary Level to Senior Secondary Level by the State Government. In the year 1984, SIE was restructured as State Council of Educational research and Training (SCERT).
The state government notified SCERT, Himachal Pradesh as the State Academic Authority for the state of Himachal Pradesh under section 29(1) of RTE Act 2009 to lay down the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education.
SCERT being the nodal agency for Teacher Training develops a consolidated calendar of annual in-service training for elementary, secondary and senior secondary school teachers and also for teacher educators in SCERTs and DIETs.
Objectives:
The objective of the Council is not only to provide academic leadership within the State and act as the hub of academic research, innovation and motivation but also to be a symbol of quality and to provide valuable insights by conducting studies on issues related to quality education in the State.
Roles and Responsibilities:
• To act as an apex body on school education in pursuance of the recommendations of National Policy on Education-1986 (NPE-1986).
• To undertake projects/programmes/schemes entrusted by the state government, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),New Delhi.
• To undertake in-service teachers training programmes, evaluation and research work in the field of School Education.
• To review, adapt, adopt and develop curriculum, text-books and training material for all level of school education.
• To nurture the talent at an early stage, the SCERT conducts scholarship exams at three levels i.e. Swaran Jayanti Middle Merit Scholarship Examination, National Means Cum Merit Scheme and National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) at primary, middle and secondary levels respectively.
• To organize Science Popularization Activities such as Seminars, Science Exhibitions and Science fairs for school children and Inspire Award Manak Scheme.
• To undertake activities in Special Education, Population Education, Vocational Education, Adolescent Education, Environment Education etc.
• To conduct Educational Surveys from time to time.