COVERAGE OF SPECIAL FOCUS GROUPS

EDUCATION FOR GIRLS, SCHEDULED CASTE AND TRIBAL CHILDREN    

GIRLS' EDUCATION   

Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, is the primary focus in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Efforts will be made to mainstream gender concerns in all the activities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme. Mobilization at the habitation/village/urban slum level, recruitment of teachers, upgradation of primary into upper primary schools, incentives like midday meals, uniforms, scholarships, educational provision like textbooks and stationery, will all take into account the gender focus. Every activity under the programme will be judged in terms of its gender component. Besides mainstreaming, special efforts like the Mahila Samakhya type of mobilization and organization, back-to school camps for adolescent girls, large-scale process based constitution of Mahila Samoohs, will also be attempted. The selection criteria takes into account the low female literacy among the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women.    

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan recognizes the need for special efforts to bring the out-of-school girls, especially from disadvantaged sections, to school. This would require a proper identification of girls who are out of school in the course of microplanning. It also calls for involving women through participatory processes in the effective management of schools. Experiences across the states under Mahila Samakhya and under the District Primary Education Programme have suggested the need for a clear perspective on women's issues. The provision for girls' education would have to be situated in the local contexts and interventions designed to suit the specific community needs in this regard. Special interventions need to be designed to address learning needs of girls and relating education to their life. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is committed to making these interventions possible.

LESSONS FROM PAST PROGRAMMES LIKE DPEP AND LOK JUMBISH  

The conduct of various previous programmes in the field of elementary education, like DPEP and Lok Jumbish, have thrown up interesting and successful lessons on gender intervention for improvement in access, enrolment, retention and achievement of girls. Some of these, which can be adopted by the states in SSA, are as follows: 

Access and Enrolment  

§         Regular enrolment drives conducted in Andhra Pradesh. The Gender gap comes down to below 5%.

§         Conducting special camps and bridge courses for girls to mainstream them.

§         Setting up special models of Alternate Schools exclusively for girls - angana vidyalayas, bal vidyalaya, bal shalas, Sahaj Shiksha Kendras, AS cum ECE centres.

§         Providing formal schooling facilities in centres of religious instruction viz., Maktabs and Madarsas.

§         Intensive mobilisation efforts among the resistant groups.

§         Working in close collaboration with the community in identified pockets.

§         Using women's groups (both formed under the programme and those already existing), VECs, MTA, to follow up issues for girls' education.

Retention  

§         Monitoring attendance has been high on the agenda in all states where micro initiatives for girls' education have been taken up. Community involvement is high in this process, particularly in mobilizing parents for regular attendance of their children

§         Follow up of drop out girls to bring them back to school either through camps or bridge courses.

§         Organizing retention drives to put regular pressure on parents and the school system to ensure retention of girls. These are not one time drives but are organised at regular intervals to sustain the pressure and take up corrective measures as may be necessary.

§         In pockets identified for intensive activities, attendance of each child is monitored to prevent dropouts.

§         It is proposed to publically felicitate the children with good attendance records at local level functions. This has not only enthused the children further, but has also instilled a sense of commitment and responsibility among parents and guardians.  

Achievement  

§         Special coaching classes/remedial classes for SC girls.

§         Creation of a congenial learning environment for girls in the classroom where they are given the opportunity to learn. This is being done through special inputs to teachers -either in selected pockets or across the programme districts

§         Remedial classes being organised by VEC/MTA members for girls who  are not faring too well at school

§         Improved classroom environment to provide equitable learning opportunities to girls. Most interventions have been through teacher sensitisation programmes. There are examples of States that have tried to address the issue of providing congenial learning environment of girls in the schools/classrooms although the approaches have been varied.

Planning and Implementation

§         States have been sensitized on the use of available data for local level planning for girls' education with community involvement.

§         Field-based trainings have been conducted in Andhra Pradesh to have focused interventions.

EDUCATION OF SC/ST CHILDREN

The educational development of children belonging to the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes is a special focus in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Every activity under the Project must identify the benefit that will accrue to children from these communities. Many of the incentive schemes will have a sharper focus on children from these communities. The participation of dalits and tribals in the affairs of the school will be specially encouraged to ensure ownership of the Abhiyan by all social groups, especially the most disadvantaged. 

The interventions for children belonging to SC/ST communities have to be based on the intensive microplanning addressing the needs of every child. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan provides flexibility to local units to develop a context specific intervention. Some interventions could be as follows:

·         engagement of community organisers from SC/ST communities with a focus on schooling needs of children from  specific households

·         special teaching support as per need

·         ensuring sense of ownership of school committees by SC/ST communities

·         training programmes for motivation for schooling

·         setting up alternative schooling facilities in unserved habitations and for other out of school children

·         using community teachers

·         monitoring attendance and retention of children from weaker sections regularly

·         providing context specific intervention in the form of a hostel, an incentive or a special facility as required.

·         involving community leaders in school management

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will develop context specific interventions, over and above the mainstreamed interventions, to tackle the problems in girls' education. All successful interventions so far will serve as the guiding principle for preparing such interventions. The provision of expenditure up to Rupees 15 lakhs per year given in the norms can be used for taking up innovative interventions relating to SC/ST under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

INTERVENTIONS IN TRIBAL AREAS  

The problems faced by children in the tribal areas are often different than that faced by children belonging to Scheduled Castes. Hence, special interventions may be needed for such regions. Some of the interventions, which can be considered, are:

·         Textbooks in mother tongue for children at the beginning of Primary education where they do not understand regional language.

·         Bridge Language Inventory for use of teachers.

·         Aganwadis and Balwadis or crèches in each school in tribal areas so that the girls are not required to do baby-sitting.

·         Special training for non-tribal teachers to work in tribal areas, including knowledge of tribal dialect.

PROVISION UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN  

All the interventions listed above can be undertaken in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The following provisions have been made for girls' and education of SC/ST children:    

         i.            Interventions for Early Childhood Care and Education

       ii.            School/EGS like alternative facility to be set up within one kilometer of all habitations.

      iii.            Up-gradation of EGS to regular schools

     iv.            Special mainstreaming camps for out-of-school girls/ SC/ST children under the Alternative and Innovative Education component.

       v.            Mahila Samakhya like interventions from the innovation fund.

     vi.            Provision of process-based community participation with a focus on the participation of women and SC/ST

    vii.            Provision of context specific innovative intervention for girls' education and education of SC/ST children - upto Rs. 15 lakh per intervention per year and up to Rs. 50 lakh in a district in a particular year. The innovative programmes can include:

                                 ·            Enrolment and retention drives.

                                 ·            Special camps and bridge courses.

                                 ·            Setting up special models of Alternative Schools.

                                 ·            Strengthening of madarsas and maktabs for formal education to girls.

                                 ·            Community mobilisation including setting up new working groups and working with

                        existing working groups.

                                 ·            Monitoring attendance.

                                 ·            Remedial/coaching classes.

                                 ·            Providing a congenial learning environment inside and outside the school.

  viii.            Training programme for community leaders to develop capacities for school management.

     ix.            Setting up of Block and Cluster Resource Centres for effective academic supervision.

       x.            Free textbooks to all girls/SC/ST children up to Class-VIII.

     xi.            Mid-day-meal programme to continue as at present.

    xii.            Incentives like uniforms and scholarships to be funded from State Plan only.

  xiii.            Adequate Teaching Learning Equipment for all Primary and Upper Primary schools.

  xiv.            At least 50 % of the teachers to be appointed have to be women.

   xv.            Provision for

                                 ·            school and teacher grants for all teachers.

                                 ·            20-day in-service training each year for all teachers

                                 ·            all children with Special needs

                                 ·            community-based monitoring, partnership with research and resource institutions, and periodic feedback on interventions

INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS  

SSA will ensure that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided education in an appropriate environment.  SSA will adopt ‘zero rejection’ policy so that no child is left out of the education system. Approaches and Options: The thrust of SSA will be on providing integrated and inclusive education to all children with special needs in general schools.  It will also support a wide range of approaches, options and strategies for education of children with special needs.  This includes education through open learning system and open schools, non formal and alternative schooling, distance education and learning, special schools, wherever necessary, home based education, itinerant teacher model, remedial teaching, part time classes, community based rehabilitations (CBR) and vocational education and cooperative programmes.   Components: The following activities could form components of the programme:    

a.      Early detection and identification: A concerted drive to detect children with special needs at an early age should be undertaken through PHCs, ICDS, ECCE centres and other school readiness programmes. Identification of children with special needs should become an integral part of the micro-planning and household surveys.

b.      Functional and formal assessment of each identified child should be carried out. A team should be constituted at every block to carry out this assessment and recommend most appropriate placement for every child with special needs.

c.       Educational Placement: As far as possible, every child with special needs should be placed in regular schools, with needed support services.

d.     Aids and appliances: All children requiring assistive devices should be provided with aids and appliances, obtained as far as possible through convergence with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, State Welfare Departments, National Institutions or NGOs.

e.      Support services: Support services like physical access, resource rooms at cluster level, special equipment, reading material, special educational techniques, remedial teaching, curricular adaptation or adapted teaching strategies could be provided.

f.       Teacher training: Intensive teacher training should be undertaken to sensitize regular teachers on effective classroom management of children with special needs. This training should be recurrent at block/cluster levels and integrated with the on-going in-service teacher training schedules in SSA. All training modules at SCERT, DIET and BRC level should include a suitable component on education of children with special needs.

g.       Resource support: Resource support could be given by teachers working in special schools.  Where necessary, specially trained resource teachers should be appointed, particularly for teaching special skills to children with special needs.  Wherever this option is not feasible, long term training of regular teachers should be undertaken.

h.      Individualized Educational Plan (IEP): An IEP should be prepared by the teacher for every child with special needs in consultation with parents and experts.  Its implementation should be monitored from time to time.  The programme should test the effectiveness of various strategies and models by measuring the learning achievement of children with special needs periodically, after developing indicators.

i.        Parental training and community mobilization: Parents of children with disabilities should receive counselling and training on how to bring them up and teach them basic survival skills.  Strong advocacy and awareness programmes should form a part of strategy to educate every child with special needs.  A component on disability should be included in all the modules for parents, VEC and community.

j.       Planning and management: Resource groups should be constituted at state, district levels to undertake effective planning and management of the programmes in collaboration with PRIs and NGOs. An apex level resource group at the national level to provide guidance, technical and academic support to children with special needs under SSA may be constituted.

k.      Strengthening of special schools: Wherever necessary, special schools may be strengthened to obtain their resource support, in convergence with departments and agencies working in that area.  

l.         Removal of Architectural barriers:     Architectural barriers in schools will be removed for easy access.  Efforts will be taken to provide disable-friendly facilities in schools and educational institutions.  Development of innovative designs for schools to provide an enabling environment for children with special needs should also be a part of the programme.  

m.     Research: SSA will encourage research in all areas of education of children with special needs including research for designing and developing new assistive devices, teaching aids, special teaching material and other items necessary to give a child with disability equal opportunities in education.

n.       Monitoring and evaluation: On-going monitoring and evaluation should be carried out to refine the programme from time to time.  For this, appropriate monitoring mechanisms should be devised at every level and field tested at regular intervals.

o.      Girls with disabilities: Special emphasis must be given to education of girls with disabilities.

Convergence: 

All activities, interventions and approaches in the area of education for children with special needs will be implemented in convergence with existing scheme like Assistance to Disabled Persons for purchase/fittings of Aids/Appliances (ADIP), Integrated Education of the Disabled Children  (IEDC) and in coordination with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, State Department of Welfare, National Institutions and NGOs.  

Expenditure upto Rs. 1200 per disabled child could be incurred in a financial year to meet the special learning needs of such children.  The ceiling on expenditure per disabled child will apply at the district level.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION    

Realising the crucial importance of rapid physical and mental growth during early childhood, a number of programmes of ECCE were started particularly after the National Policy for Children (1974).  The existing ECCE programmes include:    

         i.            Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).  

       ii.            Scheme of assistance to voluntary organisations for conducting Early Childhood Education

            (ECE) centres.  

      iii.            ECEs and day-care centres run by voluntary agencies with Government's assistance.  

     iv.            Pre-primary schools run by the State Governments, Municipal Corporations and other

            governmental and non-government agencies.  

       v.            Maternal and child health services through primary health centres and sub-centres and other

           agencies.  

The National Policy of Education (NPE) has given great deal of importance to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). It views ECCE as a crucial input in the strategy of human resource development, as a feeder and support programme for primary education and as a support service for working women of the disadvantaged sections of society. It has also taken into account the holistic nature of ECCE and has pointed out the need for early care and stimulation of children belonging to the vulnerable sector.  Since the age span covered under ECCE is from conception to 6 years, emphasis has been given to a child-centered approach, play-way and activity-based learning in place of formal methods of teaching and early introduction of the three R's.  The importance of community involvement has also been highlighted.  Emphasis has been given to establishing linkages between Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and other ECCE programmes.  

The Revised Policy Formulation reiterates the postulates of NPE, 1986 on ECCE.  The prescriptions of POA, 1986 continue to be of relevance.  What is attempted here is to update the POA, 1986 taking into account the developments since then and the need to strengthen the programmes by, inter-alia, improving the programme components, co-ordination mechanism and enlisting community participation in mobilising resources, planning and monitoring.  

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan realizes the importance of pre-school learning and early childhood care and its role in improving participation of children in schools. In order to facilitate a greater convergence with the Integrated Child Development Services, efforts to strengthen them in the area of pre-school education will be made. Specific support will be available to existing ICDS centres.  

In habitations not covered by the ICDS and wherever the State government is desirous of starting a pre-school education centre in the formal primary school, support from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan could be accessed. In case of a new ICDS centre coming in such a habitation, the pre-school facility will necessarily have to work in conjunction with the ICDS.  

A provision of up to Rupees fifteen lakhs per year in a district for any innovative intervention including for Early Childhood Care and Education has been made. The District Elementary Education Plan has to have a Plan for Early Childhood Care and Education. It also has to list the facility already created under the ICDS. The supplementary support for ECCE will always be in conjunction with the ICDS. Provision of honoraria for pre-school teacher, training of Aanganwadi Sevikas for Pre-school learning, activity materials, play items, etc., could be provided as support for ECCE. 

Recognizing the continuum of learning and development, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan would make all efforts to develop an integrated approach to meet the educational needs of the pre-schoolers. Some illustrative interventions could be as follows:  

§         Strengthening pre-school component in ICDS by need-based training of aanganwadi worker, provision of additional person, learning materials etc.  

§         Setting up ECEs as pre-school centres in uncovered areas.  

§         Generating awareness on importance of early child development through advocacy programmes.  

§         Organising training programmes for community leaders.  

§         Providing for intensive planning for ECCE.  

§         Development of materials for ECCE related activities.  

§         Promoting convergence between the school system and the ECCE arrangement.  

STRATEGIES FOR OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN: EDUCATION GUARANTEE SCHOOLS IN UNSERVED HABITATIONS AND ALTERNATIVE AND INNOVATIVE EDUCATION FOR OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN INCLUDING CHILDREN IN DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES  

The Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education scheme is a part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan framework. Guidelines issued separately under the EGS & AIE shall apply. The management structure for implementation of EGS & AIE will be incorporated in the management structure of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Planning, appraisal and supervision processes will also be the same.

The new scheme makes provision for diversified strategies and has flexible financial parameters. It has provided a range of options, such as EGS, Residential bridge camps, etc. There are four broad focus areas:

         i.            Full time community schools for small unserved habitations  

       ii.            Mainstreaming of children through bridge courses of different duration

      iii.            Specific strategies for special groups like child labour, street children, adolescent girls, girls

            belonging to certain backward communities, children of migrating families, etc.

     iv.            Innovative programmes - the innovations can be in the areas of pedagogic practices,

            curriculum, programme management, textbooks and TLMs, etc. 

All habitations not having a primary school within one kilometre and having a minimum of school age children, will be entitled to have an EGS type school. Children who have dropped out-of-school will have an opportunity to avail of bridge courses, aimed at their mainstreaming. The objective is to see the EGS and AIE as integral to the quest of UEE. The linkages with CRC/BRC/DIET/SCERT will be required for EGS and AIE.

URBAN DEPRIVED CHILDREN  

There is an urgent need to focus on the educational needs of deprived children in urban areas. Recent studies indicate the growing problem of schooling of poor children in urban areas. On account of different administrative arrangements for the management of schools in the urban areas, often a number of initiatives for UEE do not reach the urban area schools. Some significant efforts have been made by NGOs like Pratham in Mumbai in partnership with the Municipal Corporation and the City Level Plan of Action in Calcutta. The Municipal Corporation of larger cities will be considered as "district" for purposes of preparation of Elementary Education Plans. The arrangements for decentralized management will also apply to these proposals. These proposals can be developed by Municipal Corporations and the State government will have to recommend these for funding under SSA, clearly specifying wherefrom the State share will be provided. All norms of SSA will apply to urban areas. Besides Ward, Urban Slum clusters will be unit of planning in such areas.

Urban areas have special problems like the education of street children, the education of children who are rag pickers, children whose parents are engaged in professions that makes children's education difficult, education of children living in urban working class slums, children who are working in industry, children working in households, children at tea shops, etc. A diversity of approaches is required to tackle the educational problems in urban areas. On account of separate administrative arrangements of schools in the urban areas, there is a need to coordinate and converge interventions across Departments and local bodies responsible for elementary education in urban areas.

This calls for a provision of planning distinctively for the urban areas either as separate plans or as part of District Plans in the case of smaller towns. In either case, this would require partnership with NGOs, Municipal bodies, etc.