Context

Union Budget 2018-19 proposed to treat school education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12; called ‘Samagra Shiksha’.

About

• Samagra Shiksha: Samagra Shiksha is an overarching programme for school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12. It is ‘an integrated scheme for school education’.
• Precedent: The Samagra Shiksha programme replaced/includes three former schemes of Central Government, namely:
  • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
  • Teacher Education (TE)
  • Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
• Implementing agency: The Scheme will be implemented through a single State Implementation Society (SIS) at the State/UT level.
  • At the National level, there would be a Governing Council headed by Minister of Human Resource Development and a Project Approval Board (PAB) headed by Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy.
  • The Governing Council will be empowered to modify financial and programmatic norms
• Aim: It was prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• Outcomes: Main outcomes of the Scheme are envisaged as Universal Access, Equity and Quality, promoting Vocationalisation of Education, and strengthening of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs).
• IMPART: IMPART is an initiative under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan that was implemented for the first time this year, IMPART focuses on making education more a fun activity rather than a mere textbook learning.

Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan

• Samagra Shiksha is a sector-wide development programme/scheme.
• Comprehensive: It provides a comprehensive strategic plan for development of school education at the district level.
• Harmonise implementation: It will harmonise the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels; particularly in using state, district and sub-district level systems and resources.
• Improving systemic performance and outcomes: Focus will shift from ‘project objectives’ to improving ‘system level performance’ and ‘schooling outcomes’.
• Improving quality: It will incentivize States towards improving quality of education.
• School as continuum: The scheme envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to Senior Secondary levels.
• Inclusive and equitable: The vision of the Scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from pre-school to senior secondary stage in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for Education.
• Two T’s: The main emphasis of the Scheme is on improving the quality of school education by focussing on the two T’s – Teacher and Technology
• In harmony with SDG: 1 which states that “By 2030, ensure that all boys and girls complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes”.
  • SDG 4.5 states that “By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of Education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations”.
• Focus regions for intervention: It is proposed that preference in the interventions would be given to Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs), LWEs affected districts, Special Focus Districts (SFDs), Border areas and the 117 Aspirational districts.

Objectives of the Scheme

• Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students.
• Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education.
• Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education.
• Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions.
• Promoting Vocationalisation of education.
• Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
• Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as nodal agencies for teacher training.

Interventions proposed

• Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention
• Gender and Equity
• Inclusive Education
• Quality
• Financial support for Teacher Salary
• Digital Initiatives
• RTE Entitlements including uniforms, textbooks etc.
• Pre-school Education
• Vocational Education
• Sports and Physical Education
• Strengthening of Teacher Education and Training
• Monitoring
• Programme Management
• National Component.

Funding pattern and implementation

• The Scheme will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• 90:10 ratio: The fund sharing pattern for the scheme between Centre and States is 90:10 for the 8 North-Eastern States and the 3 Himalayan States viz. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• 60:40 ratio: The fund sharing pattern for the scheme between Centre and States is 60:40 ratio for all other States and Union Territories with Legislature.
• 100% for UTs: It is 100% centrally sponsored for Union Territories without Legislature.
• Flexibility to states: The scheme gives flexibility to the States and UTs to plan and prioritize their interventions within the scheme norms and the overall resource envelope given to them.
• Fund allotment: Funds will be allocated based on an objective criteria based on enrolment of students, committed liabilities, learning outcomes and various performance indicators.

Benefits

• Transition rates: The Scheme will help improve the transition rates across the various levels of school education.
• Universal access: It will aid in promoting universal access to children to complete school education.
• Convergence and linkages: The integration of Teacher Education would facilitate effective convergence and linkages between different support structures in school education. This will be done through interventions such as:
  • Unified training calendar
  • Innovations in pedagogy
  • Mentoring and monitoring, etc.
• Need-focused and dynamic: This single scheme will enable the SCERT to become the nodal agency for conduct and monitoring of all in-service training programmes to make it need-focused and dynamic.
• Technology: It would enable reaping the benefits of technology and widening the access of good quality education across all States and UTs and across all sections of the Society.