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This article provides an essay on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in rural India.
Meaning of SSA:
(A) A programme for clear time frame for universal elementary education.
(B) A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
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(C) An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
(D) An effort at effectively Involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, school management committees, village and Urban, Slum Level Education Committees, Parents- Teacher’s Associations, Mother-Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.
(E) An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
(F) A partnership between the central, state and the local government.
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(G) An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary education.
Aims of SSA:
The SSA seeks to provide useful and relevant elementary education to all children in 6-14 age group by 2010. Its other goal is to bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of the community in the management of schools. It is a quest for an education system that does not alienate the child from the society and seeks to promote community solidarity.
The children are allowed to learn about their natural environment in a manner that harnesses the human potential, but spiritually and materially. The stress is on value based learning which gives an opportunity to children to work for teach other well being rather than to permit selfish pursuits.
Objectives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA):
(A) All children in school. Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ‘Back to School’ camp by 2003.
(B) All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007.
(C) All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010.
(D) Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for a life.
(E) Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010.
(F) Universal retention by 2010.
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The SSA has setup a framework for its implementation. It allows state to formulate context specific guideline within the overall framework. It encourages district to reflect local specificity. It promotes local need based planning on the lines provided by national policy norms. It aims to make planning a realistic exercise by adopting broad norms.
It is expected that various districts and states are likely to achieve universalisation in their own context and time frame. 2010 is the outer limit for achieving the target. The emphasis is on main streaming out of school children through diverse strategies so that eight years of schooling for all children in the age group of 6-14 is provided.
The thrust is on bridging gender and social gaps and a total retention of all children in schools. It is also expected that the education system will be made more relevant so that children and parents find the schooling system a joyful experience in their own natural and social environment.
The SSA has two important aspects:
(i) It provides a wide convergent frame work for implementation of elementary education schemes.
(ii) It is also a programme with budget allocation for strengthening wider areas to achieve UEE. While all investments in the elementary education sector from the states and central plans would reflect as part of SSA framework, they will all merge into the SSA programme within next few years. As a programme it reflects additional resource for UEE.
Strategies Central to SSA:
The SSA is conceived as an “Umbrella programme” which subsumes all the on-going projects, programmes and schemes aimed at developing basic education. A convergent approach will, it is expected, help overcome the problems of co-ordination between intra and inter sectoral programme initiatives and same time facilitate effective planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EFA (Education For All) programmes.
Convergence between education and development programmes, aimed at poverty alleviation, employment generation, food for work, promotion of household industries and enhancing the quality of life (health, family welfare, availability of drinking water, rural housing etc.) is being effected currently. In turn, these programmes increase the capacity of households to seek and support the education of children.
Institutional Reform:
As of the SSA, institutional reforms are being carried out in all the states. The states have to make an objective assessment of their existing educational systems including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralization and community ownership, review of the state Education Acts, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, education of girls, SCs/STs and disadvantaged groups policy regarding private schools. Many states have already effected institutional reforms to improve the delivery system for elementary education.
Community Empowerment:
The programme calls for community ownership of schools and interventions through effective decentralization. This is facilitated by the involvement of women’s groups. Village Education Committee (VEC) members and members of the Panchayati Raj institutions.
Local level institutions are expected to undertake training if community leaders and community representatives to enable them to undertake planning, programming and monitoring tasks.
Community Based Monitoring:
It is envisaged in the SSA that the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) would co-relate school level data with community-based information from micro planning exercises and field surveys. For example, every school will have a notice board showing all the grants received by the school and other details.
The SSA envisages co-operation between teachers, parents and PRls, as well as accountability and transparency on the part of every individual and agency involved.
Focus on the Education of Girls and Special Groups:
Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled Castes and scheduled tribes, is one of the principal concerns in SSA. It follows a mainstreamed gender approach. Efforts provide for mobilisation at the habitation/village/urban slum level, recruitment of female teachers, nutritional support, provision of free text books and uniforms; back to school camps for adolescent girls and organisation and constitution of Mahlla Samoohs.
Focused attention is given to activities that enhance participation of children from SCs/STs, religious and linguistic minorities, disadvantaged groups and disabled children.
The Tenth Plan strategy for achieving LFEE has been designed with a holistic approach as the existing policies and programmes are either for specific target groups/regions or aspects (Operation Blackboard, which targeted mainly the school Infrastructure). An all-comprehensive programme, SSA will be the main vehicle for achieving the goals of UEE.
The programme Is implemented in a mission mode with the Prime Minister heading the national mission for SSA. The major thrust of SSA is to achieve quality universal elementary education with community ownership of the school system.
One of the major strategies of SSA is to prepare district elementary education plans through a process of participatory planning. The programme also calls for community ownership of school and interventions with effective decentralization. In addition to this, local level institutions are also expected to undertake training of community leaders to enable them to undertake planning, programming and monitoring tasks.
Progress in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:
The accelerated efforts towards Education for All (EFA) which are already showing results have firmly set the country on a path that ensures a better quality of life for all the citizens. The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the National Literacy mission targeted at the child and adult populations respectively are together rapidly changing the educational scenario in India.
SSA is bringing more and more children to and retaining them in schools, especially girls while the National Literacy Mission (NLM) is enabling more and more adults to become literate.
During 2005-2006, the SSA approved 35306 new schools, appointment of 156610 new teachers, construction of 34262 school buildings, 141886 additional class rooms, construction of 65771 toilets, and provision of drinking water for 40760 schools, free text books for 6.12 crore children and annual in-service training to 3252785 teachers for all 600 districts.
A sum of Rs. 7527.23 crore (upto March 2006) was released by Central Government to the States/Union Territories.
In Education sector, the total allocation will be increased by 20 per cent from Rs. 28, 674 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 34, 400 crore in 2008-09. Of this SSA well be provided Rs. 13,000 crore. The focus of SSA will shift from access and infrastructure at the primary level to enhancing retention, improving quality of learning and ensuring access to upper primary classes.
SSA seeks to achieve the goal of universalisation of primary education by 2010. The unique feature of SSA is that it is aimed at community ownership of the entire school system at the primary level.
The emphasis is not only on the quantitative spread of education to bring all children in the age group of 6-11 in the educational net but also to improve it qualitatively. In fact all primary education activities have been taken over under the SSA umbrella.