· @scert uk
How the IT department of SCERT Uttarakhand turned online teacher training into a globally recognised model for AI and ICT-enabled education.
A proud moment for Uttarakhand
Two years ago, a teacher in a remote hill school of Uttarakhand had few ways to learn about AI or new classroom technology without travelling for days. Today, that same teacher can enrol in a free, self-paced course on UK e-Srijan, learn at her own time on a mobile phone, and earn a certificate — and the model that made this possible is now being discussed in Hong Kong, featured by UNESCO and shortlisted among the world’s best.
In 2026, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Uttarakhand received four major recognitions for its work in AI and ICT-enabled education:
- SKOCH Award 2026 — Education, Gold
- AI for Education Awards 2026 — Top 6 Global Finalist, Teacher Training Award
- UNESCO IITE — International Case Study in its Guide for Educators
- LIET 2026 — Learning Innovations and Emerging Technologies Conference, University of Hong Kong
It is a recognition for India and a proud moment for Uttarakhand — “Badhta Uttarakhand, Digital Uttarakhand.”
The laurels, one by one:
SKOCH Award 2026 — Education, Gold. SCERT Uttarakhand won Gold for “Revolutionizing Teacher Training at Scale: The Success Story of ICT MOOCs via e-Srijan”. The award recognises how a state-run, low-cost online platform trained teachers across every district at a scale classroom workshops could never reach.
AI for Education Awards 2026 — Top 6 Global Finalist. In the Teacher Training Award global competition, which drew entries from 47 countries across 6 continents and 38,000 projects, India’s entry “Building Future-Ready Teachers through AI and ICT Enabled MOOCs”, developed by Ramesh Prasad, Bandana Garbyal and the SCERT Uttarakhand team, was named one of only six global finalists — alongside teams from Nigeria, North Macedonia, Singapore, Türkiye and South Africa.
UNESCO IITE — International Case Study. SCERT Uttarakhand is featured in the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) Guide for Educators to Support Gender Transformative Integration of ICT and AI into Secondary and TVET Classrooms in the Global South. Being cited by UNESCO places Uttarakhand’s work in a global conversation on AI, gender equality and women’s and girls’ digital empowerment.
LIET 2026, University of Hong Kong. The work was also featured at the UNESCO-linked Learning Innovations and Emerging Technologies Conference 2026 (PD4AI | AI4PD) at the University of Hong Kong, sharing the Uttarakhand model with researchers and education leaders from many countries.
Together these honours speak to the same themes: AI and ICT integration, gender equality, women’s and girls’ digital empowerment, inclusive education, innovation and future-ready teachers.
Behind the awards: hard work in the IT department
None of this came from one big launch. It came from a small IT team at SCERT Uttarakhand that kept building, testing and improving, course after course.
MOOC 1.0 (2024) laid the foundation: ICT basics for teachers, delivered free on UK e-Srijan.
MOOC 2.0 (October–December 2025) took the next step into AI-enabled teaching and school administration, and reached 54,000 registrations — teachers from plains and hill districts alike, learning at their own pace.
What made the difference was the way the work was done:
- Content made by teachers, for teachers. Subject experts from SCERT, DIETs and schools wrote scripts and recorded videos themselves, using free and legal tools.
- Built for low bandwidth and mobile phones, so teachers in remote areas were not left out.
- Short videos, quizzes and practical tasks that teachers could use in class the next day.
- Quality checks at every step, ethical use of AI, open educational resources and no pirated software.
- Long hours and teamwork — the IT team planned courses, trained experts, edited videos, set up quizzes and certificates, and answered teachers’ questions, often well beyond office hours.
The awards belong to every teacher who completed a course — and to the team that made sure the courses were worth completing.
What comes next
The recognitions are a milestone, not the finish line. SCERT Uttarakhand’s plan for the coming years builds directly on what has worked:
- MOOC 3.0 — launching soon. Six short, practical AI courses for teachers.
- MOOC 4.0 — development begins at the 21–23 October 2026 workshop. Eight courses of about five hours each, taking learners from fundamental to intermediate level: ethical and responsible AI, AI-powered lesson planning with Medha AI, 3D animation and multimedia, inclusive education with a focus on autism, road safety, communication skills, action research, and gaming and coding.
- Teachers and students together. For the first time, three courses — Road Safety, Communication Skills, and Gaming and Coding — are also designed for students of Grades 6–12, with classroom activities for younger children through their teachers.
- Learning by doing. Every course ends with an e-portfolio of real classroom work, so certificates reflect what teachers can actually do.
- MOOC 5.0 — the advanced level of the same areas, planned after MOOC 4.0.
The aim stays simple: every teacher in Uttarakhand, from the plains to the remotest hill village, should have free access to high-quality, future-ready professional learning.
These laurels were earned in classrooms, not on stages. Heartfelt thanks to the leadership of Director Bandana Garbyal, additional director Padmendra Saklani, Team of SCERT Uttarakhand and the Department of School Education for their vision and support; to the subject experts, DIET faculty and reviewers who wrote, recorded and checked every lesson; to the IT team for its tireless work behind the screens; and above all to the thousands of teachers who chose to keep learning.
From the Himalayas to the world—Uttarakhand's teachers have shown that quality digital education can start anywhere. The next chapter begins now.
— R P Badoni, Course Co-ordinator, MOOCs, IT Department, SCERT Uttarakhand
#DigitalUttarakhand #AI4EDU26 #SCERTUttarakhand #UKeSrijan #FutureReadyTeachers
