State Council of Educational Research & Training Uttar Pradesh The SCERT of UP was established at Lucknow in 1981 as an apex government organization at the state level. It is not an autonomous body. Its roles and functions are primarily concerned with ensuring quality in respect of planning, management, research. evaluation and training at the school level. with a view to effecting suitable changes in policy formulation and policy implementing strategies, the SCERT has been identified as a lead institution. The principal areas of its preoccupations center on the overall improvement of the policies and programmes of school education in general and the elementary education in particular. As such the commitment to avowed objective of achieving universalization of elementary education and congruent with it the various action programmes become a significant and critical domain of the projects and activities of the SCERT. This goal is accomplished through its various organizational units. The State Council of Educational Research & Training, U.P., is providing academic support to the District Primary Education Programme intended primarily to accelerate the processes of pedagogical renewal in the state. The thrust areas include (a) development of curriculum, review and revision of text books, (b) preparation of teachers support material e.g. teacher edition of textbooks, teacher guides, (c) capacity building at different levels, development of training packages for teachers, Para-teachers and ECCE functionaries and their training programme, and (d) assessment of learning levels of students for bench marking purpose. It will be pertinent to observe at the very outset that SCERT UP has to orchestrate its main functions through 10 departments and 70 functional DIET's under its control by enlisting support and collaborations with NGO’s, State Resource Group, experts and national level apex institutions.