MINISTER OF STATE IN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
(SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)
(a) and (b): The Government is committed to provide quality education at affordable price, to improve the literacy rate and the infrastructure for overall betterment of school education system in the country. Education is a subject in the Concurrent List. Improving the quality of education across all levels from primary to senior secondary level is a continuous and ongoing process. Several initiatives have been undertaken in this direction.
The Government of India has launched Samagra Shiksha - an Integrated Scheme for school education, w.e.f. 2018-19, as an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to
ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education. Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided to States and UTs for undertaking various activities to ensure universal access to education including opening/strengthening of new schools upto senior secondary level, construction of school buildings & additional classrooms, up-gradation and running of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, setting up of residential schools/hostels, free uniforms, free text books, transport allowance and undertaking enrolment & retention drives. Mid-day meal is also provided to students at the elementary level of education under PM Poshan Scheme. Further, under National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme, scholarship is awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.
(c) The amount of funds allocated for educational purposes under Samagra Shiksha, State-wise, during each of the last three years and in the current year, is at Annexure. Further, Department of School Education & Literacy has released following funds to States/UTs under various Schemes:-
Financial Year 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22(as on date)
Funds Released (Rs. in Cr.) 39424.74 42507.31 41356.22 24418.68
(d): The Government of India has taken following measures for the betterment of school education across the country:
1. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha has been aligned to the recommendation of NEP 2020.
2. National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) has been launched under Samagra Shiksha for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by the end of Grade 3, and e-content for the same has been released in DIKSHA platform.
3. Integrated In-service teacher training programme - NISHTHA 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 has been introduced for different stages of school education for
Teachers, Head Teachers/Principals and other stakeholders in Educational Management.
4. Learning Outcomes for the Secondary level have been notified.
5. National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 has been conducted on 12th November 2021 by the Ministry of Education to evaluate children''s progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the health of the education system, to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels.
6. A 70 indicator based matrix Performance Grading Index (PGI) has been developed to grade the States/UTs. District level Performance Grading Indices (PGI) has been prepared and a Web application for compilation of PGI-District has been developed.
7. The Structured Assessment for Analyzing Learning levels (SAFAL) framework has been developed by CBSE and launched on 29th July 2021 for Competency-based assessment in CBSE schools for grades 3, 5 and 8 focusing on testing for core concepts, application-based questions and higher-order thinking skills.
8. VIDYA PRAVESH—Guidelines for Three-month Play-based School Preparation Module for Grade-I Children, has been released on 29th July 2021 to ensure that all children are exposed to a warm and welcoming environment when they enter Grade-I.
******Download PDF Files
