by Yuvi - November 15, 2020

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

What is the aim of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) launched in 2001, is one of India’s major flagship programmes for universalization of elementary education. Its overall goals include universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps in elementary education, and achieving significant enhancement in learning levels of children.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is being implemented in partnership with the State Governments and reaches out to 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations across the country.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) objectives, Goals and main aims of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan –

(a) Enrolment of all children in school, Education Guarantee Centres, Alternative school

(b) Retention of all children till the upper primary stage

(c) Bridging of gender and social category gaps in enrolment, retention and learning  and

(d) Ensuring that there is significant enhancement in the learning achievement levels of children at the primary and upper primary stage.

Provisions of Right to Education Act are being implemented through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Accordingly, norms have been revised / modified to align them with the requirement of Right to Education Act (RTE Act) , 2009.

Scheme of Infrastructure development in Minority Institutions (IDMI)

IDMI has been operationalized to augment infrastructure in private aided/unaided minority schools/institutions in order to enhance quality of education to minority children. The salient features of IDMI scheme are:-

i) The scheme would facilitate education of minorities by augmenting and strengthening school infrastructure in Minority Institutions in order to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority communities.

ii) The scheme will cover the entire country but, preference will be given to minority institutions (private aided / unaided schools) located in districts, blocks and towns having a minority population above 20%.

iii) The scheme will, inter alia, encourage educational facilities for girls, children with special needs and those who are most deprived educationally amongst17.

National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL):

NPEGEL is implemented in educationally backward blocks (EBB) and addresses the needs of girls who are „in‟ as well as „out‟ of school. NPEGEL also reaches out to girls who are enrolled in school, but do not attend school regularly.

NPEGEL emphasizes the responsibility of teachers to recognize vulnerable girls and pay special attention to bring them out of their state of vulnerability and prevent them from dropping out.

Both NPEGEL and KGBV are expected to work in tandem to complement efforts under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to ensure „inclusion‟ of all girls and provide them „quality‟ education. While NPEGEL is designed to work through the day schools, KGBV establishes residential schooling facilities for the girls in remote areas that are un-served by upper primary schools or in areas with educational disadvantage amongst certain social groups.