School of Education (SOE) is one of the first schools to be established in IGNOU in the year 1987. The functions of the SOE, within the broad framework of the objectives of IGNOU, are to carry out academic activities addressing education as a field of knowledge and an area of practice. SOE undertakes academic activities pertaining to two major areas:

• The various aspects of the practice of education as a profession, and
• The various branches of education as an academic discipline.

Four disciplines / areas namely, Education, Distance Education, Educational Technology and Adult Education have been assigned to the School. The School has been undertaking three types of activities - development of academic programmes, research, documentation and extension activities.

The vision of the School is to provide multidisciplinary perspective while developing both disciplinary and professional programmes in the area of Education and to develop a cadre of professionally trained reflective teachers who are equipped with the relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will facilitate them to undertake various roles and responsibilities in a multifaceted system of education in the country.

The mission of the school is to develop Programmes with a multidisciplinary perspective while developing both disciplinary and professional programmes in the assigned areas to develop a cadre of professionally trained reflective teachers, educators who are equipped with the relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that will facilitate them to undertake various roles and responsibilities in a multifaceted system of education in the country.

The functions of SOE are within the broad framework of the objectives of the IGNOU to undertake academic, research and extension activities related to theory and practice of these areas. The school prepares specialists in educational discourses and knowledge generation. It develops academic programmes for the professional development of teachers and educational managers at different levels of education. It also functions as a centre for documentation of its coursematerials in the form of print and non-print media and is engaged in the promotion of technology-enabled learning.

From its inception, SOE has been a pioneer in open and distance learning (ODL) for teacher education. It introduced innovative programs that catered to the needs of in-service teachers, aspiring educators, and education professionals. Over the years, SOE has expanded its offerings to include certificate, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, covering a wide range of topics such as elementary education, special education, educational technology, and educational leadership.

• The school had offered its first Diploma programme in the year 1992 on the recommendation of National Policy on Education, 1986 to orient teachers and professionals working in the field of higher education. The first extended contact programme of IGNOU, in 1993, was done by SOE through teleconferencing in a makeshift studio. The school had also developed knowledge modules, a State-of-the-art self-learning material, in Higher Education.
• Certificate in Guidance (CIG), an IGNOU-NCERT collaborative Programme was launched in 1993 for sensitizing primary school teachers and parents. The content design of the programme followed a case-based approach in Self Learning Material (SLM)-development.
• School of Education was the first to offer the Doctoral Degree Programme in IGNOU and the School was the first to award Ph.D. in Education.
• In 1997, UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education was instituted in SOE with a focus on research and professional development of teachers.
• The School’s B.Ed Programme was a Model Programme offered through ODL in 2000. The combined components of theory and practicum provide adequate opportunities for competency building amongst untrained in-service teachers. B. Ed. Programme recognized by NCTE is offered in four-layered delivery system i.e., Headquarters, Regional Centres, Study Centres and Work Centre (Practicing School). The B.Ed Programme was revised in accordance with the requirements of NCTE.
• Diploma in Primary Education (DPE) offered in 2002; a NCERT-IGNOU collaborative programme for training of untrained and under-trained primary school teachers in the North-Eastern Region of the country. Later, it was offered in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh& J & K under MoU between IGNOU & respective states. On the recommendations of the NCF, 2005, NCFTE 2009 and RTE Act, the programme was revised and upgraded into Diploma in Elementary Education (DELED). It was offered on selected North-Eastern States i.e., Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur &also in Uttarakhand on the recommendation of NCTE. A six-month enrichment programme for primary school teachers, who have completed DPE from IGNOU, was developed and offered for the State of Bihar in 2011-12.
• On the recommendation of MHRD, Certificate in Primary Education (CPE) a six-month in-service teacher training programme was developed for untrained/undertrained primary school teachers in the N-E India.
• Certificate in Elementary Teacher Education (CETE), a six-month programme was developed & offered (2005-06) to elementary level teachers of Tripura state, on the request of the State Govt. of Tripura.
• MA(Education) is a disciplined based programme which was launched in 2008 with a multi-disciplinary approach not only in development of different courses but also in the adoption of courses from different PG diplomas for its specialized areas, higher education, distance education, educational technology, educational management, and adult education.
• M. Ed. Programme, a joint venture of the DEC, IGNOU & NCTE, was developed and was offered by the school in the year 2009.
• The course material of adult education programmes PGDAE/MAAE had been developed by conducting orientation and training of the course writers using a Technology-enabled Course Team Model for Development of Self-learning Materials’.
• The School of Education had launched an innovative programme in the area of inclusive education i.e., Post Graduate Certificate in Information and Assistive Technologies for the Instructors of the Visually Impaired (PGCIATIVI) in the year 2014 which is integrated in nature.
• The school has entered a Memorandum of Collaboration with various State Governments and Institutions / Organization for training of large number of teachers as mandated by Right to Education Act, 2009.
• The school has taken many initiatives in the teaching-learning process to reach the learners. The workshops of B.Ed. Programme have been conducted in online mode during the Pandemic period by using Facebook live sessions, followed by Google meet meeting at the concerned study centre.
• Faculty members have also interacted online with the learners by using Google Group, video tutoring through Zoom, Google Meet, Youtube, Facebook and other social media online platforms.
• Online learning platform such as SWAYAM has been used to reach the learners. Various online courses have been developed under SWAYAM platform.