Common scheme to make education affordable
Centre
plans to merge two of its major school education schemes by 2030
In
a move to provide infrastructure to the government schools same as that of the
private institutes, the central government is planning to merge the two of its
major school education schemes -- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya
Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).
DNA
had earlier reported that the Ministry of Human Resource Development is working
on a plan to merge SSA and RMSA to create a single more effective policy for
school education. While SSA caters to Classes 1 to 8, RMSA caters to only
classes 9 and 10, due to their slightly different mandates, the schemes are
being merged.
The
merger is also being done because of a large number of primary (1 to 8) schools
in the country as compared to upper primary (1 to 10), which skews up the
attention given to upper primary classes. Stand-alone primary and upper primary
schools constitute respectively around 55 percent and 10 percent of the total
schools in the country.
With
this plan, the government wants to make quality education accessible for all by
the year 2030. "Pooling together all resources including that of SSA and
RMSA at national and state level and clear commitment to school education
during the next seven years will make the goal achievable," an expert
committee formed to review the possibilities of the merger said
The
committee also recommended a number of measures which have been agreed upon by
the ministry. The report suggested that "need-based planning" should
be done for schools which will be more cost-effective in terms of teachers
salary, residential schools will be established, transport facilities would be
made available to girls upto secondary. "There should be a single strategic
district and state plan covering grades 1 to 10/12 where schools rather than
any given level of school education become the unit of planning," it
further added.
"The
benefits of merging the two schemes will reflect in the strengthening of
existing school in terms of civil works, hardware support, major repairs and
residential quarters for teachers. Need-based composite residential schools may
be established, this will be economic, efficient and effective," the
report said.
"Given
the structure of school education in India, characterised by a large proportion
of stand-alone small primary (55%) and upper primary schools (10%) there is a
need to go for a paradigm shift in the approach for strategic management of
school education in the country," the committee suggested.
MAKING IT EASY
- Committee recommended measures which have been agreed upon by the ministry.
- The report suggested that “need-based planning” should be done for schools which will be more cost-effective primary classes.
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
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