Government Initiatives in Education Sectors

  • The Education sectors of India has faced with multi – dimensional challenges. In the year 1950 the challenge before the government was to increase the number of students in the school especially womens.
  • There has been social stigma that women should not go to school rather stay in home and get married.

The Challenges facing the Education sectors:

  • Good Quality education.
  • Learning attainment
  • Training of Teachers or lack of quality teachers
  • Curriculum to be revamp based on the presence scenario.
  • Incorporating technology in all levels of educations.

Some of the Schemes by Government of India:

About Samagra Shiksha

  • The Union Budget, 2018-19, has proposed to treat school education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12. Samagra Shiksha – an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12 has been, therefore, prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
  • It subsumes the three Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
    This sector-wide development programme/scheme would also help harmonise the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels.

Mid-Day Meals Scheme

  • With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995.
  • In 2001 MDMS became a cooked Mid-Day Meal Scheme under which every child in every Government and Government aided primary school was to be served a prepared Mid-Day Meal with a minimum content of 300 calories of energy and 8-12-gram protein per day for a minimum of 200 days.
  • The Scheme was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children studying in Government, Government aided and local body schools, but also children studying in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres.
  • In September 2004 the Scheme was revised to provide for Central Assistance for Cooking cost @ Re 1 per child per school day to cover cost of pulses, vegetables cooking oil, condiments, fuel and wages and remuneration payable to personnel or amount payable to agency responsible for cooking. Transport subsidy was also raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states and Rs 75 per quintal for other states. Central assistance was provided for the first time for management, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme @ 2% of the cost of food grains, transport subsidy and cooking assistance. A provision for serving mid-day meal during summer vacation in drought affected areas was also made.
  • In July 2006 the Scheme was further revised to enhance the cooking cost to Rs 1.80 per child/school day for States in the North Eastern Region and Rs 1.50 per child / school day for other States and UTs. The nutritional norm was revised to 450 Calories and 12 grams of protein. In order to facilitate construction of kitchen-cum-store and procurement of kitchen devices in schools’ provision for Central assistance @ Rs. 60,000 per unit and @ Rs. 5,000 per school in phased manner were made.
  • In October 2007, the Scheme was extended to cover children of upper primary classes (i.e. class VI to VIII) studying in 3,479 Educationally Backwards Blocks (EBBs) and the name of the Scheme was changed from ‘National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education’ to ‘National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools’. The nutritional norm for upper primary stage was fixed at 700 Calories and 20 grams of protein. The Scheme was extended to all areas across the country from 1.4.2008.
  • The Scheme was further revised in April 2008 to extend the scheme to recognized as well as unrecognized Madarsas / Maqtabs supported under SSA.

SPQEM

  • SPQEM seeks to bring about qualitative improvement in Madrasas to enable Muslim children attain standards of the national education system in formal education subjects. The salient features of SPQEM scheme are:
  • To strengthen capacities in Madrasas for teaching of the formal curriculum subjects like Science, Mathematics, Language, Social Studies etc. through enhanced payment of teacher honorarium.
  • Training of such teachers every two years in new pedagogical practices.
  • Providing Science labs, Computer labs with annual maintenance costs in the secondary and higher secondary stage madrasas.
  • Provision of Science/Mathematics kits in primary/upper primary level madrassas.
  • Strengthening of libraries/book banks and providing teaching learning materials at all levels of madrasas.
  • The unique feature of this modified scheme is that it encourages linkage of Madrasas with National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS), as accredited centres for providing formal education, which will enable children studying in such Madrasas to get certification for class 5, 8, 10 and 12.

Saakshar Bharat

  • Saakshar Bharat Programme goes beyond ‘3’ R’s (i.e. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic); for it also seeks to create awareness of social disparities and a person’s deprivation on the means for its amelioration and general wellbeing.
  • This programme was formulated in 2009 with the objective of achieving 80% literacy level at national level, by focusing on adult women literacy seeking – to reduce the gap between male and female literacy to not more than 10 percentage points.
  • It has four broader objectives, namely imparting functional literacy and numeracy to non-literates; acquiring equivalency to formal educational system; imparting relevant skill development programme; and promote a leaning society by providing opportunities for continuing education.
  • The principal target of the programme is to impart functional literacy to 70 million non-literate adults in the age group of 15 years and beyond. This Includes coverage of 14 million Scheduled Castes (SCs), 8 million Scheduled Tribes (STs), 12 million minorities & 36 million others.
  • The overall coverage of women is aimed at 60 million. 410 districts belonging to 27 States/UTs of the country were identified to be covered under Saakshar Bharat.
  • Eligibility criteria for coverage under Saakshar Bharat. – A district, including a new district carved out of an erstwhile district that had adult female literacy rate of 50 per cent or below, as per 2001 census, were considered eligible for coverage under the Saakshar Bharat programme.
  • In addition, all left-wing extremism-affected districts, irrespective of their literacy rate, were also eligible for coverage under the programme. There were 365 districts in the country that had adult female literacy rate of 50 per cent or below.
  • Home Ministry had declared 35 districts as left-wing extremism affected districts. However, 30 left wing extremism affected districts also had adult female literacy of 50 per cent or below. Initially 370 having the adult female literacy of 50% or below as per 2001 census that qualified for coverage under the programme.
  • Since 2001, several eligible districts have been bifurcated or trifurcated. This has raised the total number of eligible districts including 35 which are left wing extremism affected districts
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