Major Activities under SSA
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Salient features of SSA
o A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
o A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
o An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
o An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal
o Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.
o An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
o A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.
o An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education
Aims of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools.
Useful and relevant education signifies a quest for an education system that is not alienating and that draws on community solidarity. Its aim is to allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in a manner that allows the fullest harnessing of their human potential both spiritually and materially. This quest must also be a process of value based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other's well being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan realizes the importance of Early Childhood Care and Education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum. All efforts to support pre-school learning in ICDS centres or special pre-school centres in non ICDS areas will be made to supplement the efforts being made by the Department of Women and Child Development.
Objectives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
§ All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-School' camp by 2003;
§ All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007
§ All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010
§ Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life
§ Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010
§ Universal retention by 2010
Rational for having a Framework for Implementation
§ To formulate context specific guidelines within the overall framework
§ To encourage districts to reflect local specificity
§ To promote local need based planning based on broad National Policy norms
§ To make planning a realistic exercise by adopting broad national norms.
Broad Strategies Central to SSA Programme
Institutional Reforms - As part of the SSA, the central and the State government are undertaking reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system. The state is on way to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralization and community ownership, review of State Education Act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, status of education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged groups, policy regarding private schools and ECCE.
Sustainable Financing - The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is based on the premise that financing of elementary education interventions has to be sustainable for a long -term perspective on financial partnership between the Central and the State government.
Community Ownership - The programme calls for community ownership of school-based interventions through effective decentralization. This has been augmented by involvement of women's groups, VEC members and members of Panchayati Raj institutions.
Institutional Capacity Building -The SSA conceives a major capacity building role for national, state and district level institutions like NUEPA / NCERT / NCTE / JCERT / SIEMAT / DIET.
Improving Mainstream Educational Administration - It calls for improvement of mainstream educational administration by institutional development, infusion of new approaches and by adoption of cost effective and efficient methods.
Community Based Monitoring with Full Transparency - The Programme have a community based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information System (EMIS) correlate school level data with community-based information from micro planning and surveys.
Habitation as a Unit of Planning - The SSA works on a community based approach to planning with habitation as a unit of planning. Habitation plan is the basis for formulating district plans.
Accountability to Community - SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents and PRIs, as well as accountability and transparency to the community.
Priority to Education of Girls - Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and minorities, are one of the principal concerns in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) are two such significant programmes under the umbrella of SSA with a distinct entity focusing on girls' education.
Focus on Special Groups - Focus on the inclusion and participation of children from SC/ST, minority groups, urban deprived children disadvantaged groups and the children with special needs, in the educational process are the significant activities.
Pre-Project Phase - SSA was commenced with a well-planned pre-project phase with a large number of interventions for capacity development to improve the delivery and monitoring system, which include provision for household surveys, community-based micro-planning and school mapping, training of community leaders, school level activities, support for setting up information system, office equipment, diagnostic studies, etc.,
Thrust on Quality - SSA lays a special thrust on making education at the elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum, child-centered activities and effective teaching learning strategies.
Role of teachers - SSA recognizes the critical and central role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs. Setting up of Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource Centres, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum-related material development, focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop the human resource among teachers.
District Elementary Education Plans - As per the SSA framework, each district prepares a District Elementary Education Plan reflecting all the investments being made and required in the elementary education sector, with a holistic and convergent approach. There is a Perspective Plan that gives a framework of activities over a longer time frame to achieve UEE. There is also an Annual Work Plan and Budget that prioritize activities to be carried out in the year. The Perspective Plan is also a dynamic document subject to constant improvement in the course of Programme Implementation.
Elementary Formal Education
The objective of the Jharkhand Education Project Council is to achieve the goals of Universal Elementary Education (UEE). Universalisation of Elementary Education aims at achieving universal participation, universal retention and universal achievement. Enrolment drives and rallies were organized in all the districts to achieve universal access. Schools having 100% enrolment of children in their feeder area hoisted the SSA flags for public knowledge and transparency. District-wise enrolment in the formal schools (including private schools) in Class I-VIII has been shown in the table given below.
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