According
to the 86th Amendment to the Constitution Act, 2002, Right to Education is a fundamental
right and therefore, elementary education shall be free. According to Article
21 A, "The State shall endeavour to provide free and compulsory education
to all children of the age of six to 14 years in such manner as the State may,
by law, determine". The endeavour therefore of Sarva Shiskha Abhiyan (SSA),
is to provide universal primary education to all in the country. The Prime Minister
heads the National Mission for SSA, which monitors the progress made under the
scheme. SSA is expected to provide relevant elementary education for children
in the country between the age group of six and 14 years by 2010.
The Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram during this Budget
period, 2007-08 has increased the allocation for school education by about 35
per cent from Rs.17, 133 crore in 2006-07 to Rs.23, 142 crore in 2007-08. He said:
"Out of this amount, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) will be provided Rs.10,
671 crore. Further, I propose to increase the provision for strengthening teachers
training institutions from Rs.162 crore to Rs.450 crore. Next year, we will appoint
2,00,000 more teachers and construct 5,00,000 more classrooms."
The performance audit of SSA carried out by Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) of India (March 2005) mentions specifically the aim of SSA:
"to ensure that all children complete five years of primary schooling by
2007; to ensure that all children complete eight years of elementary schooling
by 2010; bridge all gender and social category gaps at the primary stage by 2007
and at the elementary educational level by 2010 and achieve universal retention
by 2010". By March 2007, under the scheme the Government has already opened
1,10,217 schools, touching 83 per cent of the target for 2006-07, which is 1,33,928.
Supply of free textbooks has been to the tune of 6.40 crore and appointment of
teachers has been to the tune of 7.95 lakh during the same period, which has sufficiently
met the targets.
Covering
the period from 2003-04 to 2007, SSA has received external funding to the tune
of Rs 4,700 crore ($ 1bn) from World Bank's International Development Association;
Department for International Development, UK and the European Commission.
Sarva Shiskha Abhiyan is an ambitious programme meant to cover 19.2 crore children
in the country. It evolved from the recommendations of the State Education Ministers’
Conference held in October 1998 to start Universal Elementary Education. The programme
was launched in 2001-02. Allocation of funds under SSA, since its inception has
shown high growth from Rs 350-crore in 2000-01 to Rs 7,800 crore in 2005-06, and
to Rs 11,000 crore in 2006-07, representing an increase of 41 per cent over the
previous year (2005-06).
The World
Bank Aide-Memoire (January 2006) on the third joint-review mission of SSA mentions
that the target of reducing out of school children by 3 million per year is being
exceeded. It mentions that the number of out of school children has fallen from
25 million in 2003 to 13.5 million as on March 2005 and that "the positive
trend will continue in 2006" whereas the CAG report says that, "Even
after 4 years of the implementation of the scheme and utilisation of almost 86
per cent of funds available with the implementation agencies, the revised target
of SSA to enroll all children in schools, education guarantee scheme, alternative
schools, back to school camps by 2005 was not achieved as 1.36 crore (40 per cent
of the total 3.40 crore children out of school) remained out of school in
the age-group 6-14 years.” A lot requires to be done. As per the World Bank Report,
there are 48 districts in the country where more than 50,000 children are out
of school, the highest being in Bihar (20), Uttar Pradesh (15) and West Bengal
(4). According to the CAG report, nationally, there were 71 children out-of-school
per thousand. So efforts need to be speeded up in this direction too.
The World Bank Report also mentions that the gender parity
continues to improve, which is within the reach at the primary level. The girls
to boys ratio at the primary level has increased from 0.90 in 2003-04 to 0.91
in 2004-05.
Mid
Day Meal
Another key
component of the flagship programme of the UPA Government has been the Midday
Meal Scheme: it is seen as a key to retain children at school. The scheme was
launched as a centrally sponsored scheme in August 1995. The Central assistance
comprised free food grain through the Food Corporation of India and admissible
transport subsidy. Initially most States got a dry ration of Rs. 3 kg per person.
The Centre earlier provided a cooking cost of Re 1 per day, which has now been
enhanced to Rs. 1.50 per day with a contribution of 0.50 paise by the State. In
the recent Budget, the Finance Minister announced that "The Mid-day Meal
Scheme will be provided Rs.7, 324 crore next year. In addition to covering children
in primary classes, beginning 2007-08, we propose to cover children in upper primary
classes in 3,427 educationally backward blocks."
Under the scheme a cooked meal of a minimum of 300 calories
is made available to 12 crore children in over 9.50 lakh schools. According to
Parliamentary Standing Committee Report (2006) on the scheme, the allocation for
the Midday Meal Scheme has gone up from Rs 12,531.76 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 17,128
crore in 2006-07, signaling a hike of over 37 per cent. The 2 per cent
education cess levied through the Finance Act 2004 yielded in the financial year
2004-05 - Rs 4,910 crore, in 2005-06 - Rs 6, 910 crore and in 2006-07 – the cess
amounted to Rs 8,748 crore. The cess is used exclusively to finance SSA and the
Midday Meal Scheme of the Government. During 2006-07, funds amounting to Rs 7,500
crore will be required to construct 5 lakh much needed classrooms, according to
the World Bank.
Considering the boost that SSA has received in terms of
funding and moral support, there is no reason to believe that cent percent literacy
cannot be achieved at the primary level.
________________________________________________________________________
- Deputy
Feature Editor, Financial Express
Disclaimer: The views expressed by
the author in this feature are entirely his own and not necessarily reflect the
views of PIB.
SRK/RTS/VN/DC
SS-173/SF-173/23.08.2007