The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Aug 4 gave its approval for continuation of the revised Samagra Shiksha Scheme for a period of five years i.e., from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a total financial outlay of Rs.2,94,283.04 crore which includes Central share of Rs.1,85,398.32 crore. The scheme covers 1.16 million schools, over 156 million students and 5.7 million Teachers of Govt. and Aided schools (from pre-primary to senior secondary level).
The centrally-sponsored Samagra Shiksha scheme, which replaced SSA and RMSA, is an integrated scheme for school education covering the entire gamut from pre-school to class XII and provides support for the implementation of the RTE Act. The scheme treats school education as a continuum and is in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4) and has also been aligned with the recommendations of NEP 2020.
The Scheme aims to universalize access to school education; to promote equity through the inclusion of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, and to improve the quality of education across all levels of school education. The major objectives of the Scheme are to Support States and UTs in:
- Implementing the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020);
- Implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009;
- Early Childhood Care and Education;
- Emphasis on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy;
- Thrust on Holistic, Integrated, Inclusive and activity based Curriculum and Pedagogy to impart 21st century skills to the students;
- Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students;
- Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education;
- Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education;
- Strengthening and up-gradation of State Councils for Educational Research and Training (SCERTs)/State Institutes of Education and District Institutes for Education and Training (DIET) as nodal agency for teacher training;
- Ensuring safe, secure and conducive learning environment and maintenance of standards in schooling provisions and
- Promoting vocational education.
New interventions have been incorporated in the revamped Samagra Shiksha based on the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020 include all child centric interventions will be provided directly to the students through DBT mode on an IT based platform over a period of time. The scheme will have an effective convergence architecture with various Ministries/ developmental agencies of the Centre and State Governments. The expansion of vocational education will be done in convergence with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and other Ministries providing funding for Skills. The existing infrastructure of schools and ITIs and Polytechnics will be used to ensure optimum utilization of the facilities, not only for school going children but also for out of school children. The other alignments and recommendations are:
- Provision of training of Master Trainers for training of Anganwadi workers and In-service teacher training for ECCE teachers.
- Provision of upto Rs 500 per child for Teaching Learning Materials (TLM), indigenous toys and games, play based activities per annum for pre-primary sections in Government Schools.
- NIPUN Bharat, a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy to ensure that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy at the end of grade III and not later than grade V has been launched under the scheme with provision of TLM upto Rs 500 per child per annum, Rs 150 per teacher for teacher manuals and resources, Rs 10-20 lakh per district for assessment.
- Specific training modules under NISHTHA by NCERT to train Secondary teachers and Primary teachers.
- Strengthening of infrastructure of schools from pre-primary to senior secondary, earlier pre-primary was excluded.
- Incinerator and sanitary pad vending machines in all girls’ hostels.
- Addition of new subjects instead of Stream in existing senior secondary schools.
- Transport facility has been extended to secondary level @ upto Rs 6000 per annum.
- For out of school children at 16 to 19 years of age, support will be provided to SC, ST, disabled children, upto Rs 2000 per child per grade to complete their secondary/senior secondary levels through NIOS/SOS.
- Financial support for State Commission for Protection of Child Rights @ Rs 50 per elementary school in the state, for protection of child rights and safety.
- Holistic, 360-degree, multi-dimensional report showing progress/ uniqueness of each learner in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains will be introduced in the form of Holistic Progress Card (HPC).
- Support for activities of PARAKH, a national assessment centre (Performance, Assessments, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development)
- Additional Sports grant of upto Rs. 25000 to schools in case atleast 2 students of that school win a medal in Khelo India school games at the National level.
- Provision for Bagless days, school complexes, internships with local artisans, curriculum and pedagogical reforms etc included.
- A new component Appointment of Language Teacher has been added in the scheme- components of training of teachers and bilingual books and teaching learning material added, besides support for salary of teachers.
- Provision made for all KGBVs to be upgraded to class XII.
- Enhanced financial support for existing Stand-alone Girls’ Hostels for classes IX to XII (KGBV Type IV) of uptoRs 40 lakh per annum (earlier Rs 25 lakh per annum).
- Training for 3 months for inculcating self-defence skills under ‘Rani Laxmibai Atma Raksha Prashikshan’ and amount increased from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 per month.
- Separate provision of stipend for CWSN girls @ Rs. 200 per month for 10 months, in addition to student component from pre-primary to senior secondary level.
- Provision of annual identification camps for CWSN at block level @Rs. 10000 per camp and equipping of Block Resource centres for rehabilitation and special training of CWSN.
- Provision for Establishment of New SCERT has been included and new DIETs in districts created upto 31st March 2020.
- Setting up of assessment cell preferably at SCERT to conduct various achievement surveys, develop test materials & item banks, training of various stakeholders & test administration, data collection analysis and report generation, etc.
- The academic support of BRCs and CRCs has been extended for pre-primary and Secondary level also.
- Support under Vocational Education extended to Government aided schools also in addition to Government Schools and grant/number of job roles/sections linked to enrolment and demand.
- Provision of Classroom cum workshop for Vocational Education in schools serving as Hub for other schools in the neighbourhood. Provision of transport and assessment cost for schools serving as spokes has been made.
- Provision of ICT labs, Smart classrooms including support for digital boards, smart classrooms, virtual classrooms and DTH channels have been provided.
- Child tracking provision included for students of Government and Government aided schools
- Support for Social Audit covering 20% of schools per year so that all schools are covered in a period of Five years.
The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through a single State Implementation Society (SIS) at the State level. At the National level, there is a Governing Council/Body headed by the Minister of Education and a Project Approval Board (PAB) headed by Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy. The Governing Council/body will be empowered to modify financial and programmatic norms and approve the detailed guidelines for implementation within the overall Framework of the scheme. Such modifications will include innovations and interventions to improve the quality of school education.
