Study of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Initiatives
About Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Project
Free and compulsory education was declared a fundamental human right in December 2002 for children in the age group of 6 to 14, although a legislative framework to guarantee such a right has yet to be implemented by the Central Government. As part of an effort to bring primary education to millions of children the Central Government in collaboration with local and state governments initiated the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme to encourage community ownership and participation in elementary schools. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship programme of the Government of India that was launched in 2001-02 in all States including Karnataka. The objective of SSA is to bring all children between the ages of 6 to 14 years (1st grade to 8th grade) and ensure that children successfully complete 8 years of elementary education. By 2007, the concerns of universal access and participation have been satisfactorily addressed while the concerns of quality and equity persist.
The SSA programme attempts to involve the Panchayati Raj institution, school management and development committees, and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools. It is a partnership among the different levels of Government. It gives flexibility to the states to develop their own vision of elementary education.
The SSA has the following key objectives:
- Universal elementary education for the children in the 6-14 age group by 2010.
- All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, back to school camp by 2007
- All children complete 5 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 social, regional and gender gaps at primary stage by 2007 and al elementary stage by 2010
- Universal retention by 2010
Strategies include involvement of local community groups, institutional capacity building, and setting up of block and cluster level resource centers, and preparation of district elementary education plan etc. Above all, the strategies comprise of well thought out interventions through provision of infrastructure, appointment of teachers, their training, and motivation for the parents and students by providing mid-day meals, uniforms, textbooks, and so forth.
Major Concerns
How successful has the SSA been in Karnataka? Are the objectives being achieved? What do parents and the children (age group of 6-14) have to say? What do the teachers have to say? Do they perceive infrastructure to be adequate and its quality on par with normative standards? Has existing infrastructure been utilized efficiently?
It is a concern if the community is playing a role in ensuring universal enrolment, retention and quality schooling, whether the retention rates are going up. A haunting question as to why children drop out of school, if it is the socio-economic and cultural factors such as irrigation, industrialization, migration, urbanization and reforms impacting the retention or is it lack of motivation on the part of parents or children? Are the teachers receiving adequate training and support and are they effective? Is the present structure of monitoring the work of teachers and of the schools satisfactory?
Further issues to be investigated are whether the outcome in the form of quality of education is monitored properly and if the goal of quality education for life bringing in a higher transition rate to post-elementary stages? Is the goal of equity in the form of special attention and arrangements for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other poor disadvantaged groups being met? After a reasonable period of schooling, say at the end of fourth or fifth grade, are the students achieving a satisfactory level of learning?
It is essential to also review the accountability of NGOs and the roles NGOs have been playing in this context either as service delivery organizations or as partners in other areas in the programme, the quality of service provided by them and if there is a monitoring mechanism for overseeing their functioning in those areas.
Preliminary Work done by PAC: Public Affairs Centre (PAC) is an NGO specializing in the area of ensuring good Governance. The CRC approach pioneered by PAC has been used in several instances to assess public service delivery through feedback from users. Also PAC has worked closely with Government departments using a collaborative rather than confrontational approach to work towards improving services.
In the context of the proposed study, meetings have been held with the higher officials concerned with the implementation of SSA and in particular with the Consultant for the SSA, the Director, Programmes, of SSA and the State level Director of SSA and the Secretary of the Education (Primary and Secondary) Department during the months of January, March April and June. Mr. S.K.Ghosal, IAS (Retd), Honorary Associate, (PAC) represented PAC at these meetings. During the discussion, the areas for an evaluative study have been identified in consultation with them and these officers have indicated their interest and general endorsement for carrying out this study.
Objectives of the Citizen Report Card
Using the CRC approach as a base and other approaches to support the project, Public Affairs Centre proposes to carry out an extensive assessment of the SSA programme with a view to answering some of the questions raised above and to achieve the following objectives:
- Obtaining feedback from children in school and their parents on the quality of schooling in terms of accessibility, reliability and satisfaction with the services delivered particularly in terms of the quality of education received.
- Obtaining feedback from teachers on their assessment of the quality of services they provide, the efficacy and helpfulness of the training imparted to them in improving the quality of their performance, in increasing retention and preventing dropouts. A similar feedback on the challenges and problems they face in delivering the services, the effectiveness of the present monitoring system for ensuring that these services are provided with an eye to quality, and the responsiveness of the Department of Education at different levels will also be obtained.
- Assessment of the Schools in terms of adequacy and quality of infrastructure provided and effectiveness of teachers and implementation of the Academic Plan.
- Carrying out an assessment of the out-of-school children especially in those districts where the number of out-of-school children is high. This assessment would give an insight into the broad socio-economic reasons for dropouts and more importantly, how effective the SSA has been in mainstreaming the out-of-school children. An assessment of the role-played by NGOs and the quality of their services in the implementation of the strategies for mainstreaming the out of school children, under the SSA will also be included.
A comparison with a district where the number of Out-of-school children, net enrolment ratio, access rate, as well as the level of learning by students have shown considerable improvement would also be part of the exercise.
Expected outcomes
· It is expected that this study will help identify issues and areas of concern in the SSA,
· To obtain feedback from teachers and students and in identifying causes for children either not enrolling in school or dropping out of school.
· It would also provide an assessment of the quality of infrastructure and teaching in the schools. The quality of services rendered by NGOs for out of school and disadvantaged children
The adequacy and quality of the present monitoring systems for the schools, teachers and the facilities run by the NGOs.