December 16, 2009 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Bullet Points Allocation for SSA: 13100 cr in 2009-10 Under SSA,

1.47 lakh primary schools have been opened 1.23 lakh primary schools have been upgraded to have upper primary classes 9.86 lakh teachers have been recruited Mid-day meal is provided to all children in classes 1-8 in Govt & Govt aided schools Govt has been collecting a 2 % cess on all taxes from 2004-05 to fund SSA & mid-day meal Backgrounder SSA is being implemented in partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations. The SSA programme, launched in 2001, aimed at achieving universal elementary education by 2010. The project was later extended to secondary education and high schools too. When the Union government launched the project in 2001-2002 academic year, it was at first scheduled to be completed over a period of six years. Later, the schedule was extended to 2008. The Union ministry again extended the project till 2010. Now the government has decided to further extend the programme till 2012. Some states could not meet the target by 2007-2008. So the Union government renewed the agreement with the states and extended the project's time span. One of the goals specifies retention of all children upto the elementary level. A multipronged approach has been adopted under the SSA for reducing drop-out rates. These include Strengthening of schools and improving the quality of education through improvement in school infrastructure, Recruitment of additional teachers, Provision of annual school grants, Regular training of teachers.

Under SSA, (i) 1.47 lakh primary schools have been opened across the country, (ii) 1.23 lakh primary schools have been upgraded to have upper primary classes, (iii) 9.86 lakh teachers have been recruited, (iv) children are provided free textbooks, (v) teachers are provided periodic in-service training,

(vi) Mid-day meal is provided to all children in classes 1-8 in Government and Government aided schools. The progress percentage under school building, additional classroom, drinking water and toilet facilities are 77.6%, 81.6%, 93.8% and 92% respectively. Besides, the teachers recruitment upto 31.3.2009 is at 80.3%. These interventions have contributed to the following improvement at primary and elementary level as under: 2001-02 2006-07 Primary Elementary Primary Elementary Level Level Level Level Reduction in drop39.03 54.60 25.43 46.03 out rates Improvement in 96.3 82.35 111.24 96.92 Gross Enrolment Ratio Improvement in 0.83 0.81 0.94 0.93 Gender Parity Index Selected Educational Statistics (SES) 2006-07 reveals decline in drop-out rate since 2001-02, including that of SCs/STs at primary and elementary level. Ministry of Human Resource Development collects the information on various educational indicators from the States/UTs annually through SES. State-wise figures, however, indicate extreme disparities in this respect. There are ten States having, a dropout rate exceeding 40%. In contrast Delhi, Puducherry and Kerala show 0% dropout rate, followed by six States having less than 5% dropout rate. Year 2001-02 2006-07 Overall 39.00 25.60 Primary (I-V) SC ST 45.20 52.30 35.91 33.09 Elementary (I-VII) Overall SC ST 54.60 60.70 69.50 45.90 53.05 62.54 Item

HRD gets flak from two parliamentary panels Nov 25, 2009 The HRD ministry has received widespread criticism from the two parliamentary panels on the performance of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, granting of deemed status to institutions of higher education and bypassing norms in the construction of the new UGC office. In case of SSA, the Standing Committee expressed concern about the poor quality of teachers and felt that giving five years to those who do not fulfill the minimum qualification "itself cannot remove the ground reality of having 44% elementary school teachers possessing only higher secondary level education". The panel also said it was not "happy" with HRD's feedback on para-teachers. It expressed concern that more and more states were not hiring permanent teachers but only para-teachers.

The Committee finds that the achievements could be misleading as the data on which these calculations were based may not be the actual figures. The Committee is given to understand that the enrolment figures represent only the number of children whose names were entered in the school rolls. The number of students who are actually attending is lower. There is a trend in some States to cover almost all students through enrolment drives and indicate a very low figure of Out of School Children (OoSE). Further, both the District Information System of Education (DISE) and NCERTs All India Educational Survey (AIES) restrict themselves to collecting information about recognized schools, which means that data about a large number of private unrecognized schools is omitted. Quality In the absence of clearly identified verifiable indicators of quality, the quality of education could be judged mainly on the basis of the students learning achievements levels. As per the findings of the 2003-04 National Sample Survey by NCERT for class III which was carried out in 29 States, students in as many as 17 States scored below the mean achievement level in Mathematics and 13 States were lagging in achievement in Language. For Class V covering 30 States/UTs, students of 17 and 15 States/UTs scored below the mean achievement levels in mathematics and language respectively. Class VIII students of as many as 10 States (in mathematics), 11 States (in languages) and 10 States (in Science) scored below the mean achievement levels in a survey conducted across 17 States. Further, as per DISE 2006-07 figures, only 44.96% boys and 45.12% girls could pass the class IV/V examinations with 60% and above marks. The figures for classes VII/VIII are 38.83% for boys and 40.06% for girls. Clearly, the achievement levels of students are far from being satisfactory. NEUPA survey 2008 According to a report by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NEUPA), under the human resource development ministry, about 30 per cent elementary schools in the country do not have a pucca building for holding classes. This when the government has been consistently increasing the allocation for the scheme. Statistics from all schools imparting elementary education (more than 80 per cent of them are government schools) show that a primary school has on an average only 2.8 classrooms for classes I-V. The minimum requirement is five rooms. The number is 4.1 for all schools (primary and upper primary). An upper primary school requires around eight classrooms. The survey found that of the existing rooms, only 72.96 per cent are in good condition, the other being vulnerable to adverse weather conditions like rain. The data show that more than 60 children sit in one room in more than 16 per cent schools This is in sharp contrast with public schools, which have one room per 20 children. More than 50 per cent schools do not have a boundary wall. Around 58.1 per cent primary and upper primary schools have common toilets for boys and girls. Around 15 per cent schools do not have access to safe drinking water. This means lakhs of children stay either thirsty or have to drink unsafe water. Ministry Document 2009

When education reforms are said to be a primary focus of the central government, a HRD ministry document has revealed that nearly 23,000 government schools are running under an open sky. To be precise, 22,762 schools including 7,827 run by local bodies have no building, while 1,757 others across the country are running from tents. Students in Madhya Pradesh are the worst sufferers as more than 4,400 schools are running in the open. While 3,424 schools in Bihar are functioning under similar conditions, the same is the fate of over 2,200 schools in Uttar Pradesh. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are some of the states where no school is functioning in such pitiable conditions. However, in Tamil Nadu 300 schools are running in tents, the highest figure among states. The HRD ministry also said that there are over 8,13,000 government schools in the country of which 6,61,117 have pucca brick and mortar buildings. At least 97,479 schools are partly pucca and over 30,000 schools have kuccha buildings. Under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, grant for major repair was given to 6,483 elementary schools during 2008-09, the ministry document said. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 "Resources are required and implementation agencies also need to be in place. Apart from this, cooperation from states, PRIs and advisory committees would be required for this exercise," HRD minister Kapil Sibal informed Rajya Sabha during Question Hour on Dec 4 The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 has been passed recently and it calls for building of neighbourhood schools within three years of passage of the legislation. Sibal said the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has prepared financial estimates of Rs1,71,484 crore for a period of five years from 2010-11 to 2014-15 for implementation of the Act. "The funds would be shared between the Centre and states. Currently this ratio is 60:40 where 60% is the share of Centre, but over the next five years, this ratio will be 50:50," the minister said.