Government initiatives to raise literacy rates in India Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

The SSA (education for all) is the prime initiative undertaken by the Central Government of India to improve the overall

literacy levels and quality of education in the country. SSA was undertaken in the Eleventh Five-year Plan. SSA is an action

plan whereby the government would incorporate the following: Increase the availability of schools (capacity creation) through opening of new schools and

construction of new classes; Improve the standards of education (quality of learning) by enhancing the skill levels of

teachers, recruiting more teachers, providing better courseware and syllabus; Attract more students to schools by implementation of the Mid-day meal scheme, which will help provide better nutrition levels to children, and Create an environment more conducive to imparting better education to every one who needs

to be educated. SSA - Progress against key targets

The government has set aggressive targets for enhancing the resources available to provide education. The targets include

setting up new schools, increasing the number of classes and teachers, and providing training to the existing teachers. The

performance against the targets can be gauged from Exhibit 2. Exhibit 2: SSA - Performance round-up Item Target Achievement upto % Achievement Opening of New Schools 1,57,967 1,29,893 82% Teachers appointed 7,72,345 5,87,388 76% Construction of Comp* IP* Comp* IP* a. School Buildings 1,20,629 71,143 31,587 58% 85% b. Additional classrooms 3,29,690 1,55,814 1,70,225 47% 99% Enrolment in EGS/AIE Centers 87,00,000 63,00,000 71% Children receiving free textbooks 6.14cr 5.35cr 87% Functional Academic Resource Centers Block level 7,422 7,201 97% Cluster level 70,735 66,140

94% Teachers trained 30,53,285 23,47,017 77% Source: Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD); * Completed and In-Progress

There has been significant growth in infrastructure, but the implementation process has been slow and a huge gap still

remains. The very nature of this mission is to complete the task of improving the literacy levels of India in a time-bound

manner. SSA has succeeded in helping the states in largely achieving the basic task of providing infrastructure and creating

systems and processes for improved educational attainments. As quality and equity are two main thrust areas of SSA, the

process improvements effected by SSA need to be maintained in the future to continue the improvement process of

education in India. As per SSA estimates, there is a shortfall of approximately 1.25lakh upper primary schools in India. The

demand for upper primary school would be greater than the demand for primary schools. : INB 010996539

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas

India faces discrimination in the field of education based on the gender of the child. The parents are more interested in

getting their male children educated rather than the female children. This has led to a lower literacy rate among females

compared to males. In a country where we have a dismal literacy rate vis-a-vis world standards, this discrimination based on

the gender paints an even worse picture. The gender disparity at the primary levels is reasonably low and has been

decreasing consistently. It is quite high at the upper primary level. Such disparity at the higher level has been declining but

at a slower pace. The government is trying to reduce this anomaly and has set up approximately 800 Kasturba Gandhi

Balika Vidyalayas. Also, as part of the SSA, an additional 410 such vidyalayas are to be set up in educationally backward

areas. This move should help in improving the educational levels for females in India. Level 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Primary (Grades I-IV) 5.5 5.1 5.1 4.2 Upper Primary (Grades V-VIII) 10.7 9.4 8.9 8.8 Elementary (Grades I-VIII) 6.8 6.2 6.1 5.4 Exhibit 3: Gender disparity in Education (%) Source: DISE Mid-day meal scheme

The Mid-day meal scheme was introduced in India in 1925 by the Madras Municipal Corporation for disadvantaged children.

It was later undertaken by the states of Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Pondicherry. The Scheme

states that a hungry child will not be able to cope up with studies and would subsequently drop out of the school. Even if the

child continues with school, he/she would lag behind. Hence, to improve the standard of education, to attract more children

to schools and reduce the drop out rates, the government started the Mid-day meal scheme in India for children of class I-IV

in the government-run schools. To support this scheme, the government provides free food grains to the schools along with

transportation in the form of subsidy, cost of cooking and provision of essential infrastructure for cooking. As per certain

responses from the teachers at schools in Rajasthan, the Scheme has boosted enrolments and enhanced school

attendance levels. In the recent Budget speech, the Finance Minister proposed to increase the coverage of the Mid-day

meal scheme to the upper primary classes (V-VIII) in the government schools across the country. This step would cover

additional 2.5cr children taking the total children under its coverage to 13.9cr. Funding of education schemes – Implementation of Education Cess

The government has imposed an Education cess on income tax to fund its various programs, which target to improve the

quality and reach of education in India. This cess is used to fund programs like the SSA. Through the collection of Education

cess, Rs8,500-9,000cr was raised in FY2007. We estimate Rs14,000-15,000cr to be collected during FY2008, a significant

44% of the

As per certain responses from the teachers at schools in Rajasthan, the Scheme has boosted enrolments and enhanced

school attendance levels

A significant 44% of the total allocation of Rs34,400cr for the Education Sector

total allocation of Rs34,400cr for the Education Sector. This will go a long way in improving literacy levels in India and

enhancing the implementation and execution of various schemes undertaken by the government to increase the reach and

improve the quality of education in India. Collection of Education cess will also help in keeping the cost of education in India

low at all levels including schools and colleges, as subsidies and aids are provided to a large number of these institutions to

improve accessibility for the lower and middle class families to educate their children.