Question : National Education Plan

(a) whether it is a fact that the 11th Five Year Plan was described as a "National Education Plan"; and

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the achievements made during the said period?

Answer given by the minister


MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) & (b): The Eleventh Five Year Plan is usually referred to as an “Education Plan” because it accorded a high priority to education for achieving rapid and inclusive growth. It presented a comprehensive strategy for strengthening the Education Sector covering all segments of the education pyramid. The actual plan allocation of Ministry of Human Resource Development during the XIth Five Year Plan (2007-12) is Rs.1,93,570 crore as compared to the Xth Five Year Plan (2002-07) allocation of Rs.58,264 crore which is a 3.4 times increase over the Xth Five Year Plan.

During the above period, the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 was made operational from 1st April 2010, and the vision and strategies of the ongoing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) were harmonized with the RTE mandate and the programme norms were revised accordingly. Under the SSA, the country has witnessed massive infrastructure development at the school level. Apart from opening over 3 lakh new schools, the SSA has also provided basic facilities in existing schools. The average student classroom ratio (SCR) which was 39 in 2005-06 has come down to 32 in 2009-10. Girls account for the majority (5.3 million) of the additional enrolment of 7.21 million
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children between 2006-07 and 2009-10. More than half of them (53%) belong to SCs and STs. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the primary level has increased from 111.2% in 2006-07 to 115% in 2009-10 and at the upper primary level it improved by 11.8% in the four years between 2006-07 and 2009-10. At present, at the elementary level, there are 1.5 million schools and the number of total students enrolled in schools is 254 million. Also, 2.18 million Children with special needs are enrolled in class 1-8.
Secondary schooling also received a major thrust during the Eleventh Plan with the launch of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), a Centrally-Sponsored Scheme with a funding pattern of 75:25 between Centre and States (90:10 for Special Category and NE States). Around 2.4 million additional students were enrolled in secondary schools during the Eleventh Plan period.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has increased from 12.3% in 2006-07 to 20.8% in 2011-12 and is estimated to be 22.6% at present. To increase access, improve quality and to remove regional imbalances in higher education, the Government has established 16 Central Universities including the conversion of three State Universities to Central Universities during the XI Five Year Plan. 7 new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 8 new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 5 new Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs), and 2 new Schools of Planning & Architecture (SPAs) were also established.

The Government has continuously endeavored to ensure equitable and sustained improvement in the quality of education at all levels, for which several initiatives have been taken both at school and higher education levels. These include, among others, Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, Teacher Eligibility Test, teacher training, improving learning outcomes through appropriate strategies in RTE-SSA, RMSA in school education. In higher education, several initiatives, such as the National Mission on Education through ICT(NMEICT), academic, curricular and examination reforms, increasing research fellowships, Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) have been taken. Further, there is increased focus and emphasis on the employability of our graduates by providing meaningful and marketable skill development and vocational experiences to the graduates in the higher education system. With the approval of the National Skill Qualifications Framework (NSQF) the country now has an integrated and unified qualifications framework linking technical & vocational education on one hand, with general education on the other.
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