Ex-NCERT Director to represent India on UNESCO's Executive Board

The Centre on Sunday announced the nomination of Professor J S Rajput, former Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), as India's representative to the Executive Board (EXB) of UNESCO.

Professor Rajput, who is known for his contributions in school education and teacher education, has held several assignments which include Professor in NCERT, 1974, Principal of the Regional Institute of Education Bhopal 1977-88, Joint Educational Adviser, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, 1989-94; Chairman, National Council for Teacher Education, NCTE, 1994-99 and the Director of the NCERT, 1999-2004.

A Padma Shri recipient, Professor Rajput's association with UNESCO and other international agencies extends over three decades. UNESCO acknowledged his contributions by selecting him for the Prestigious Jan Amos Comenius Medal for outstanding contributions in research and innovations in the year 2004. He received this Award in July 2009.

He was also invited by the UNESCO in April-May 2005 to participate in the Evaluation of the UNESCO International Center for Technical and Vocational Education; UNEVOC; Bonn, Germany. He has completed a UNESCO project for Bremen University, Germany in 2007-08.

In the recent past, Professor Rajput was also invited to make presentations in the meetings of international experts on Technical and Vocational Education and Training organized by international agencies in Vietnam in July 2006 and in Adelaide, Australia in October 2006.

On a related note, the executive board is one of the constitutional organs of UNESCO and is elected by the General Conference. The EXB has a four-year term of office and 58 seats. It examines the work for the organisation and the corresponding budget estimates. In practice, the executive board is the main organ responsible for all policies and programmes of UNESCO.

The elections of members of the EXB for the term 2017-21 took place in November last year, in which India won with 162 votes in Group IV during the 39th session of the General Conference which was held from October 30 to November 14, 2017.