MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a): Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for universalisation of elementary education in the country, has an inbuilt concurrent evaluation and monitoring system. SSA programme is reviewed twice every year by a Joint Review Mission (JRM) comprising independent experts and members of external funding agencies, covering all States by rotation. The last JRM was held from
2nd to 12th February, 2015. Its key recommendations include, inter alia, convergence of SSA and Teacher Education, improving institutional efficiency of State Councils for Educational Research & Training (SCERTs) and District Institutes of Education & Training (DIETs), rationalization of teacher’s deployment to maintain Pupil Teacher Ratio in all schools and simplification of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).
The Central Government also reviews and monitors implementation of the RTE Act periodically with the States at different fora, including the State Education Ministers’ Conferences. An independent concurrent financial review is also undertaken to cover all States within two years. Educational data on outcomes is collected through a Unified District Implementation System of Education (UDISE) every year. The status of these evaluations and monitoring is placed in the public domain on the Ministry’s website.
(b): As part of `Digital India’ initiative, the Department has made a financial provision of Rs 9.50 crore in 2015-16 for Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) for schools under SSA on pilot basis.
(c): The State-wise details of funds allocated, central share released and utilization under the SSA in the last three years and the current year are at Annexure.
(d): World Bank and the European Commission (EC) have extended support towards the implementation of the SSA programme in the country, including in Kerala. Government of India has signed a financial agreement with the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 651.00 million (equivalent to US$1006.2 million) on 29th May, 2014 for SSA programme covering the period 2013-14 to 2016-17. European Commission has also extended a total budgetary support of Euro 79 million for sector policy support programme for elementary and secondary education for a period of five years up to 2016-17.
(e): The Government of India has introduced several measures to facilitate the implementation of the SSA to meet the objectives of the RTE Act and to ensure universalization of primary education in the country by (i) launching ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’-a foundational programme to improve early reading and writing with comprehension and early mathematics and a focus on strengthening Science and Maths learning at the upper primary level; (ii) launching ‘Rashtriya Avishkaar Abhiyan’ – a convergent framework to make Science, Mathematics and Technology exciting for children; (iii) sharing an exemplar on continuous and comprehensive evaluation in elementary education developed by the NCERT; (iv) sharing learning outcomes by class and stage of education brought out by the NCERT; (v) conducting the 3rd round of National Achievement Surveys for Class III, V and VIII to track student learning outcomes; (vi) bringing out guidelines against discrimination in schools; and (vii) monitoring of States to set up decentralized grievance redressal systems under the RTE Act.
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