Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a Government of India Flagship program for the achievement of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time-bound manner.
SSA was pioneered by former prime minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was launched by the Government of India in 2002. The program aimed to provide free and compulsory education for all children in the 6-14 years of age group by 2010.
Its overall goals include universal access and retention, bridging of the gender gap and social categories gap in education, and enhancing of learning levels of children. The SSA project is the active partnership between the central govt and the state govt.
Major Characteristics of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
The major characteristics of SSA are-
- Program with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
- An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
- A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country
- An effort at effectively involving the panchayat Raj Institution, School Management committees, Village and urban slum level education committees, parents-teacher associations, Tribal Autonomous councils, and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.
- An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
- A partnership between the central, State, and local government.
- An opportunity for the state to develop its own vision of elementary education.
- A result-oriented approach with accountability towards performance and output at all levels.
- An equity-based approach that focuses on the needs of educationally backward areas and a dis-advantage social group including children with special needs.
- Institutional reforms and capacity building to ensure a sustained effort for the Universalisation of Elementry Education (UEE)
Major Objective of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
The main objective of SSA are-
- All children in school, education guarantee center, Alternate School, Back to School camp by 2003.
- All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007
- All children complete eight years of elementary school by 2010
- Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life
- Bridge all gender and social category gaps at the primary stage by 2007 and elementary education by 2010
- Universal retention by 2010
Basic Features of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
The basic features of SSA are-
- Institutional reforms: As a part of the SSA, the central and state government will undertake reforms in order to improve the efficiency of the delivery system. The statement will have to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education system.
- Sustainable Financing: The SSA is based on the premise that financing elementary education interventions has to be sustainable. This called for a long-term perspective on the financial partnership between central and state governments.
- Community ownership: The program calls for community ownership of school-based interventions through effective decentralization, this will be augmented by the involvement of women’s groups, VEC members, and members of the Panchayati Raj institution.
- Institutional Capacity building: The SSA conceives major capacity-building roles for national, state, and district-level institutions. Improvement in quality requires a sustainable support system of resource persons and institutions.
- Improving Mainstream Educational and ministration: It calls for the improvement of mainstream educational administration through institutional development, infusion of new approaches, and by adaptation of cost-effective and efficient methods.
- Community-based monitoring with full transparency: The program will have a community-based monitoring system. The educational management information system (EMIS) will correlate school-level data with community-based information from micro-planning and surveys. Besides this every school will be encouraged to share all information with the community including grants receive, A notice board would be put up in every school for this purpose.
- Accountability to Community: SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents, and PRI as well as accountability and transparency to the community.
- Priority to the education of Girls: The education of girls, especially those belonging to the Sc, ST, and Minority will be one of the principal concerns in SSA.
- 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 children with special needs in the educational process.
- Pre-Project phase: SSA will commence throughout the country with a well-planned, pre-project phase that provides for a large number of interventions for capacity development to improve delivery and monitoring systems.
- Thrust on Quality: SSA Lays a special thrust on making education at the elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the quality curriculum, child-centered activities, and effective teaching-learning strategies.
- Role of teacher: SSA recognized the critical and central role of teachers and advocated a focus on their development needs. Setting up of Block Resource centers/ Cluster Resources Centre, recruitment of qualified teachers.
FAQ
What is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a comprehensive and Integrated Flagship program funded by Govt. Of India to achieve the universalization of Elementary education (UEE).
SSA was pioneered by former prime minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was launched by the Government of India in 2002
What are the objective of SSA?
All children in school, education guarantee center, Alternate School, Back to School camp by 2003.
All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007
All children complete eight years of elementary school by 2010
Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life
Bridge all gender and social category gaps at the primary stage by 2007 and elementary education by 2010
Universal retention by 2010
What are the benefits of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for Students?
Useful and Relevant elementary education to all children in the 6-14 years age group.It promotes education for all
How is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan funded?
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan fun was aided by Central Government (85%) and State Government (15%)
What is the role of the government in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?
The role of the Government in SSA is to provide free and Compulsory Education in the 6-14 age group children.
How does Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan improve the quality of education?
To open a new school in those areas which don’t have schools and improve the existing school infrastructure through the provision of additional classrooms, Separate toilets for Boys and Girls, Drinking water facilities and recruiting a teacher.
What is the impact of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan on rural areas?
Reduce the dropout rates by providing free and compulsory education, a Mid-day meal scheme, Bridging the Gender and Social gaps in school, and Improving the education quality in rural areas
How does Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan support teacher training and development?
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.
What is the role of community participation in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan?
In Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, several kinds of community-based institutions have been involved such as Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Mother Teacher Association (MTA), Village Education Committee (VEC), and Gram Panchayat. Together have to work to improve the quality of education