Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan/ Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan

Author: Mohammad Bombaywala

International Institute of SDGs & Public Policy Research

A BRIEF OUTLOOK 

Sarva shiksha abhiyan/ Samagra shiksha (SSA) is a flagship program of the Indian Government. It was initiated in 2001 to attain the Universalisation of Elementary Education. SSA is legally backed by adding education as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution under Article 21 A. Free and compulsory education was provided to all the children, and SSA aims to meet this expectation in a time-bound manner.

As mandated by the 86th Amendment of the Constitution of India, free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6-and 14 should be a Fundamental Right. Therefore, to see to it that this Fundamental Right is fulfilled for children (who aren’t aware of the significance of education and rights) the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan policy has been formulated. As the name suggests, SSA means that it is a campaign that aims to provide education to all children from the ages of 6-14 years . The policy not only covers the education-related aspects like teachers, stationery, and other such basic materials but also other associated arenas like public health , conducting neighborhood mapping to study the geography and demography of the region and similar elements.

Due to its comprehensive and large base target audience, SSA is a multi-tier policy that has bodies at 5 different levels of administration – National, State, District, Block and Cluster, School Level Monitoring. At the District and Block levels, there is a District Education (DEO) and Block Education Officer (BEO) assigned respectively. These officers work along with the State as well as the Village levels authorities to ensure a smooth chain of communication to update the higher authorities about any hindrances or successes. The BEO plays an additional role in providing recommendations to the District Project Officer while the latter is preparing the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) which is then appraised by the National and State level officers.

As mentioned earlier, SSA is not just the domain of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, it seeks cooperation from at least 6 other Ministries and Departments. These include:

1. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – is expected to conduct regular health check-ups through government hospitals of Public Health Centers.
2. Ministry of Human Resource Development – extend mid-day meals to all eligible schools as well as the functioning of the NIOS (National Institute for Open Schooling).
3. The Ministry of Women and Child Development , ensures pre-school education and admission and extends ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) benefits to the children.
4. State PwDs  make schools or facilities catering to different disabilities
5. The Department of Science and Technology provides the necessary tools for geo-spatial and social mapping.
6. Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Social Justice and Empowerment follows a collection of funds for appropriate infrastructure to accommodate tribal children.

As in any other policy, SSA also mandates the formation of various reports and checklists to maintain a clear and objective view of its goals. The U-DISE (United District Information System for Education) is a crucial body that stores all types of data regarding schools in India. Data derived from this database can be used to make specific and comprehensive reports about various policy tenets.

For the District Collector to see the progress, an implementation checklist is created which covers topics like the total number of schools in the previous and current year, total teachers and enrollment, and other such aspects. But this is not it, there is an amalgamation of reports that are written to monitor the performance of various ideas and infrastructures, some of which are,

• Teachers’ Qualifications.
• Enrolment by Mediums of Instruction.
• Availability of classrooms and other infrastructure and neighborhood school information.
• Percentage of Enrolment in Pre-Primary Schools to that of the population required to get enrolled.
• Ratio of Girls to Boys Enrolment at different levels of education.

All in all, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan/ samagra shiksha is a comprehensive policy that talks about providing education to all children from the ages of 6-14 years . It does not pay any attention to the child’s caste , gender or class and grants equal opportunity and resources to every beneficiary. The implementation of the policy is above par but some quality-of-life changes can be made to ease the jobs of the people working behind the scenes ensuring smooth execution of the policy.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION PREVIEW

• This policy is implemented under the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD).
• It is termed an "Education for All" movement.
• The pioneer of this program was the former prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• It aims to provide an educational infrastructure to around 193 million children in over 1.1 million habitations.
• The initial aim was to meet the objectives of SSA by 2010 but the timeline was extended.
• The 86th Amendment Act provided Legal Backing to SSA when it made education free for children in the age group of 6-14.
• In 2019, National Education Policy mentioned that around 6.2 crore children of the age group 6-18 were out of school in the year 2015.
• Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat is a sub-program under SSA.
• The World Bank in association with the Ministry of HRD developed a portal called "Shagun" that was launched to regulate and monitor the SSA program.

SAMGRA SIKSHA

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha, and Teachers Training are the three components that make up Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. SSA took several initiatives to ensure the RTE Act of 2009. Government, society, and parents came together to enlighten and enrich society with knowledge. This gives each child the confidence to tackle the world around him or her.

Policy Beneficiaries – 

• Young children belonging to the age group of 6-14 years.
• Young children belong to Backward and economically weaker sections.
• Trained teachers who will get more job opportunities.
• Other workers who are in search of a job as per their skills and qualifications.

FURTHER POLICY CONTEXT

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan will be implemented with the help of several sub-schemes under it like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Following is a list of the major sub-schemes under SSA.

• Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat: It is a nationwide subprogram of SSA. The program aims to improve the comprehensive early reading, writing, and early mathematics for the children of classes 1 and 2.
• Shagun Portal: It is an initiative to monitor the process of SSA. It has two parts. The first one is a Repository of Good practices where the practices are documented in the form of videos, testimonials, case studies, and images. This helps in displaying innovations, success stories, and great experiences. The second part is the online monitoring module that measures the state-level performance and progress through indicators that track the efficiency with which the SSA funds are being utilized.
• Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA): It was launched in 2015 to strengthen the teaching of Math and Science in the upper primary classes. It motivates and encourages children to study Science, Mathematics, and Technology.
• Vidyanjali Scheme: An online platform to engage with the volunteers in Government Schools under Vidyanjali. Through this, the volunteers will be able to make knowledge such as storytelling and reading accessible nationwide. This program has been launched with the pilot phase consisting of around 2200 schools across 21 states.

SSA: Major Objectives

• To start new schools in those places where there are no schooling facilities.
• To improve the facilities and infrastructure of the existing schools.
• To provide for alternative schooling facilities.
• To start new schools with updated facilities.
• To add additional classrooms, toilets, and drinking facilities.
• To improve and strengthen the skills and capacity of the teachers in the system.
• To promote girls’ education to make a difference in the status of women in the country at large.
• Providing education to the differently-abled or children with special needs.
• To bridge the digital gap by offering computer education to the children in the program.
• Major drawbacks of the Policy and its implementation  
• There is still a very high dropout rate in the country. 29% of the students in the country drop out before completing the five years of primary schooling and 43% drop out before finishing primary school. Along with that only 42% complete high school. This indicates that about 1.4 million of the children in the age group of 6-11 years drop out of schooling.
• There is still a shortage of teachers across many levels. There is a need for additional 68,9000 teachers in primary schools to fulfill the RTE norms of the student-teacher ratios.
• As per an NGO Pratham's , ASER reports, around 78% of the students of Class 3 and 50% of Class 5 students cannot read Class 2 text and only about 25% of Class 3 students can solve a two-digit subtraction problem.
• The lack of accountability under SSA manifests poor learning outcomes and low attendance rates which need to be addressed.

My Analysis –

Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns, according to data released by UNICEF. Furthermore, around 214 million children globally, or 1 in 7 have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning. The analysis of school closures report notes that 14 countries worldwide have remained largely closed from March 2020 to February 2021. So taking into consideration the covid situation and education system in India that has recently resumed with proper guidelines. I am glad to share my experience and recommendations below.

Methodology 

This report is based on Secondary data [ through government portals and websites ]. Explanatory research along with qualitative analysis of existing data. No unethical means or sites have entertained in the article. 

Objective – 

We aim to critically analyze the implementation of SSA and its future prospect as Samagra Siksha Abhiyan:

PRIMARY SURVEY PAPER SAMPLE

1. Are you aware of sarva shiksha abhiyan/ samagra shiksha and the sub-schemes under it like ‘Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat’?

          [The reply was positive from all the three regions]

2. What are the major problems you face in school and think that the Administration and SSA can help you with?

Some common answers among the three regions were -

• Insufficient Funds
• Irregular Supplies (Water, Electricity)
• Transportation Problem
• Supply of Stationery and Textbooks sometimes 
• Poor Sanitation

3. Tick the demography of students enrolled in your institution

Some common answers among the three regions were -

• People with Disabilities
• Scheduled Caste
• Scheduled Tribes
• Other minorities

4. What are the facilities provided by the government?

Some common answers among the three regions were -

• Mid-day meal
• Textbooks
• Digital training (Pandemic)
• Infrastructure facilities

5. Is there any progress regarding residential facilities for minorities?

[The common answer was yes] 

6. Is proper environment and nutrition provided to children between the age of 6 to 14 years.

[ Several answers were negative regarding the environment.]

7. Are you receiving/Did you receive assistance from the Govt. in maintaining COVID-19 Guidelines?

     [The common answer was yes] 

8. Do you organize field trips? If yes, then are you receiving sufficient help?

[The common answer was yes] 

DATA ANALYSIS 

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Number of schools	1094543	1083747	1032570	1032049
Number of students	134150013	13111334	130931634	134904560

 

Boys enrollment

year	Primary	Upper primary	Secondary
2017-18	63585551	-	-
2018-19	62509126	33159082	20006747
2019-20	63251749	33427571	20072356
2020-21	6352951	33965154	20383068

 

Girls Enrollment

year	Primary	Upper primary	Secondary
2017-18	58792849	-	-
2018-19	57721044	31107939	18327824
2019-20	58434954	31445816	18392077
2020-21	58491640	31889045	18623307

 Challenges- 

• Lack of Coordination -

There is a lack of cooperation between the local community and educational institutions, which causes problems with universalizing primary education and limiting access to appropriate education.

• The attitude of Indifference - 

The higher authorities have an indifferent attitude, which leads to a lack of effort in the universalization of basic education. Furthermore, documentation work takes a long time and causes delays when needed.

• Lack of Funds and Resources

In numerous areas, resources such as quality food and cleanliness lag. Inadequate funding results in a shortage of learning resources and materials for pupils. During the covid epidemic, the SSA fell behind in providing digital access or gadgets to keep up with the school system, which finally surged and came into administration's emphasis.

• Poverty

Even though education is free, parents must spend some costs, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may choose not to send their children to school.

 Recommendations

• A sub-scheme can be introduced comprising a full-fledged facility introducing the K-12 education system in government schools can be presented where civil or private societies can sponsor. This will promote digital India among the growing generation and advancements.

• A continued block chain inspection and maintenance of the requirements of government schools in Zillas, talukas, etc. to be under routine.

• Education facility-based offices should be established near rural or district areas and must be accessible to all. For this the government and Municipality must increase the budget – currently, Pune public schools have received 25 crores of funds which are expected to increase after the pandemic.

• Merging SSA with NIPUN BHARAT MISSION as a sub-scheme of SSA the expenditure will be summed up and facilities of both schemes will be provided parallelly, both schemes can counter each other’s problems and requirements. This will be helpful for the organized functioning of data, practical work, and funds.

• Transport facilities for the primary schools should be provided. 

Conclusion 

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan/ Samagra Siksha Abhiyan is an excellent idea with equally excellent execution. In a country like India whose population of children between the ages of 6-and 14 is about 26% of the total population, implementing SSA seems like a humongous task. All tiers of governance have performed magnificently even when presented with such a barrier. But as with most things in life, SSA also has its own merits and demerits. It faces problems like a lack of teachers, a 42% completion rate, and improper teaching but there is always scope for improvement. The authorities must analyze and solve these drawbacks to make the system better and more successful. All in all, the Government of India has chosen a wonderful path to work on which, if successful, will provide the youth of this and coming generations ample opportunities to study, learn and grow as students and as human beings. 

Bibliography

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan portal

https://www.aicte-india.org/reports/overview/Sarva-Shiksha-Abhiyan

http://ssa.nic.in /

Darpan government portal

https://darpg.gov.in/sites/default/files/Sarva%20Siksha%20Abhiyan.pdf

https://www.godigit.com/guides/government-schemes/sarva-shiksha-abhiyan

PRS India

https://prsindia.org/policy/report-summaries/the-implementation-of-sarva-shiksha-abhiyan-and-mid-day-meal-scheme

https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/home

https://maa.ac.in/index.php?tcf=sarva_shiksha_abhiyan

https://oaji.net/pdf.html?n=2021/1201-1629792502.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1034912X.2021.1917525