Sarva Siksha Abhiyan
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is
Government of India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of
Elementary Education (UEE) making free and compulsory Education to the Children
of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right.
SSA is being implemented in partnership with
State Governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192
million children. The programme seeks to open new schools in those habitations
which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure
through provision of additional class rooms, toilets, drinking water,
maintenance grant and school improvement grants.
Existing schools with inadequate teacher
strength are provided with additional teachers, while the capacity of existing
teachers is being strengthened by extensive training, grants for developing
teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure
at a cluster, block and district level.
Aims of Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan
is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all
children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010 to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active
participation of the community in the management of schools is to allow children to learn about and master their natural
environment in a manner that allows the fullest harnessing of their human
potential both spiritually and materially to provide opportunities for value based learning that allows
children an opportunity to work for each other's well being rather than to
permit mere selfish pursuits
Broad strategies central
to SSA
- Institutional Reforms- As part of the SSA, the central and the State governments will undertake reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system.
2.
Sustainable Financing- The
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is based on the premise that financing of elementary
education interventions has to be sustainable. This calls for a long
-term perspective on financial partnership between the Central and the State
governments.
3.
Community ownership- - The
programme calls for community ownership of school-based interventions through
effective decentralisation. This will be augmented by involvement of women's
groups, VEC (Village Education Committee) members and members of Panchayati Raj
institutions.
4.
Institutional capacity
building- The SSA conceives a major capacity building role for national, state
and district level institutions like National Institute for Educational
Planning and Administration (NIEPA) / National Council for Educational Research
and Training (NCERT) / National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) / State
Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) / State Institute for
Educational Management and Training (SIEMAT) / District Institute for
Educational Training (DIET).
- Accountability to community- SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents as well as accountability and transparency to the community.
- Priority to education of girls- Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and minorities, will be one of the principal concerns in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
7.
Focus on special groups- There
will be a focus on the inclusion and participation of children from SC/ST,
minority groups, urban deprived children disadvantaged groups and the children
with special needs, in the educational process.
- Thrust on quality- SSA lays a special thrust on making education at the elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum, child-centered activities and effective teaching learning strategies.
9.
Role of teachers- SSA
recognizes the critical and central role of teachers and advocates a focus on
their development needs. Setting up of Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource
Centres, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher
development through participation in curriculum-related material development,
focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to
develop the human resource among teachers.
SSA in Tamil Nadu
The
implementation of SSA in Tamilnadu has resulted in the introduction of new
strategies and innovative experiences in the realm of Elementary Education. It
has also brought in a new perspective on special focus groups - Girls,
Children with Special Needs and SC/ST children. The successful SSA programmes
in Tamil Nadu are:
A.
Activity Based Learning System
B. Active
Learning Method (ALM)
C. Enriching
English language at the primary level
D. Design and
Development of “Simply English”
E. SSA -
Unicef - British Council Teacher Education Programme
F. Science is
Fun
G. Development of
SLM & Workbooks
H. TV/DVD player
for every school
I. CAL
through ICT
K. Reading
Cell Development
L. Special
Residential Camps
N. EDUSAT
