Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

1. Introduction. - 1.1 Towards a Right Based Framework

1.1.1 The role of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) for strengthening the social fabric of democracy through provision of equal opportunities to all has been accepted since the inception of our Republic. The original Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution mandated the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen within a period of ten years. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986/92, states:

"In our national perception, education is essentially for all Education has an acculturation role. It refines sensitivities and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, a scientific temper and independence of mind and spirit - thus furthering the goals of socialism, secularism and democracy enshrined in our Constitution"

1.1.2 With the formulation of NPE, India initiated a wide range of programmes for achieving the goal of UEE. These efforts were intensified in the 1980s and 1990s through several schematic and programme interventions, such as Operation Black Board (OBB), Shiksha Karmi Project (SKP), Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP), Bihar Education Project (BEP), U.P Basic Education Project (UPBEP), Mahila Samakhya (MS), Lok Jumbish Project (LJP), and Teacher Education which put in place a decentralised system of teacher support through District Institutes of Education and Training, District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). Currently the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in partnership with State Governments for universalising elementary education across the country.

1.1.3 Over the years, there has been significant spatial and numerical expansion of elementary schools in the country. Access and enrollment at the primary stage of education have reached near universal levels. The number of out-of-school children has reduced significantly. The gender gap in elementary education has narrowed and the percentage of children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes enrolled is proportionate to their population. Yet, the goal of universal elementary education continues to elude us. There remains an unfinished agenda of universal education at the upper primary stage. The number of children, particularly children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, who drop out of school before completing upper primary education, remains high. The quality of learning achievement is not always entirely satisfactory even in the case of children who complete elementary education.

1.1.4 The [Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002] inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The [Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009], which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. The need to address inadequacies in retention, residual access, particularly of un-reached children, and the questions of quality are the most compelling reasons for the insertion of Article 21-A in the Constitution of India and the passage of the RTE Act, 2009 in the Parliament.

1.1.5 [Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010]. The title of the RTE Act incorporates the words 'free and compulsory'. 'free education' means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. 'Compulsory education' casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age group. With this, India has moved forward to a right based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right as enshrined in the Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act.

1.2 The Present Context. - 1.2.1 Currently, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is implemented as India's main programme for universalising elementary education. Its overall goals include universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps in education and enhancement of learning levels of children. SSA provides for a variety of interventions, including inter alia, opening of new schools and alternate schooling facilities, construction of schools and additional classrooms, toilets and drinking water, provisioning for teachers, periodic teacher training and academic resource support, text books arid support for learning achievement. These provisions need to be aligned with the legally mandated norms and standards and free entitlements mandated by the RTE Act.

1.2.2 The new law provides a justiciable legal framework that entitles all children between the age of 6-14 years free and compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education. It provides for children's right to an education of equitable quality, based on the principles of equity and non-discrimination. Most importantly, it provides for children's right to an education which is free from fear, stress and anxiety.

1.3 Salient Features of the RTE Act, 2009. - 1.3.1 The RTE Act, 2009 provides for:

(i) The right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school.

(ii) It clarifies that 'compulsory education' means obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age' group. 'Free' means that no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.

(iii) It makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an appropriate class.

(iv) It specifies the duties and responsibilities of appropriate Government, local authority and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the Central and State Governments.

(v) It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours.

(vi) It provides for rational deployment of teachers by ensuring that the specified pupil teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just as an average for the State or District or Block, thus ensuring that there is no urban- rural imbalance in teacher postings. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.

(vii) It provides for appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.

(viii) It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition,

(ix) It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, and which would ensure the all-round development of the child, building on the child's knowledge, potentiality and talent and making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child friendly and child centred learning.

1.4 Child Entitlements - the Right Perspective. - 1.4.1 In the present phase of SSA, it is mandatory to ensure that the approach and strategies for universalising elementary education are in conformity with the right perspective mandated under the RTE Act. The RTE Act provides that 'Every child of the age of 6-14 years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education. Free education is defined as 'removal of any financial barrier by the state that prevents a child from completing eight years of schooling'. 'Compulsory education' means obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group.

In addition to the SSA provisions, most States are addressing the issue of financial barriers by providing incentives in the form of uniforms, notebooks, stationary, school bags, scholarships and transportation facilities, as required. However, the incentive based approach would need to shift to an entitlement perspective. This paradigm shift needs to be reflected not only in SSA, but in all interventions, programmes and schemes for elementary education of the State Governments, as also in the mind set of all the agencies involved in the implementation of the SSA.

1.4.2 The Right perspective under the RTE Act has also brought in new monitoring mechanisms to ensure that child rights under the Act are protected. The RTE Act provides for constitutionally created independent bodies like the National and State Commissions for protection of Child Rights to perform this role. These bodies, with quasi-judicial powers bringing an element of monitoring new to the implementation of SSA, requiring that internal monitoring mechanisms under the SSA engage purposefully with these independent bodies.

1.5 RTE Roadmap. - 1.5.1 The RTE provides a legally enforceable right framework with certain unambiguous time targets that Government must adhere to. For example, the Act mandates that every child in the six to fourteen age group shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school. The Act also provides that if a school does not exist in an area or limit prescribed-as the neighbourhood, the appropriate Government and the local authority shall establish a school in that area within a period of three years. Therefore, all children - girls and boys - children from disadvantaged groups and economically weaker sections, children with special needs, children involved in child labour and so on, must be in a school within three years time starting from 1 April, 2010. This provision in the RTE Act is applicable to the SSA goals on access and universalisation of elementary education. The following time-frames, mandated by the RTE Act, become immediately applicable to SSA:

1.6 Revamp of SSA: The Revised SSA Framework for Implementation. - 1.6.1 SSA has been operational since 2000-2001. With the passage of the RTE Act, changes need to be incorporated into the SSA approach, strategies and norms. The changes are not merely confined to norms for providing teachers or classrooms, but encompass the vision and approach to elementary education as evidenced in the shift to child entitlements and quality elementary education in regular schools.

Committee on Implementation of RTE Act and the Resultant Revamp of SSA. - In September 2009, the Government set up a Committee under the chairpersonship of Shri Anil Bordia, former Union Education Secretary, to suggest follow up action on SSA vis-a-vis the RTE Act. The Committee had a series of interactions with State Education Secretaries, educationists, representatives of teachers' unions, voluntary organisations and civil society organisations. The Committee's report, entitled "Implementation of RTE Act and Resultant Revamp of SSA", submitted in April 2010, was guided by the following principles:

(i) Holistic view of education, as interpreted in the National Curriculum Framework 2005, with implications for a systemic revamp of the entire content and process of education with significant implications for curriculum, teacher education, educational planning and management.

(ii) Equity, to mean not only equal opportunity, but also creation of conditions in which the disadvantaged sections of the society - children of SC, ST, Muslim minority, landless agricultural workers and children with special needs, etc. - can avail of the opportunity.

(iii) Access, not to be confined to ensure that a school becomes accessible to all children within specified distance but implies an understanding of the educational needs and predicament of the traditionally excluded categories - the SC, ST and others sections of the most disadvantaged groups, the Muslim minority, girls in general, and children with special needs.

(iv) Gender concern, implying not only an effort to enable girls to keep pace with boys but to view education in the perspective spelt out in the National Policy on Education 1986/92; i.e. a decisive intervention to bring about a basic change in the status of women.

(v) Centrality of teacher, to motivate them to innovate and create a culture in the classroom, and beyond the classroom, that might produce an inclusive environment for children, especially for girls from oppressed and marginalised backgrounds.

(vi) Moral compulsion is imposed through the RTE Act on parents, teachers, educational administrators and other stakeholders, rather than shifting emphasis on punitive processes.

(vii) Convergent and integrated system of educational management is pre-requisite for implementation of the RTE law. All states must move in that direction as speedily as feasible.

1.6.2 The revised SSA Framework for Implementation is derived from the recommendations of the Committee on Implementation of RTE Act and the Resultant Revamp of SSA, and is intended to demonstrate the harmonization of SSA with the RTE Act. It is also based on child centric assumptions emerging from the National Policy on Education, 1986/92 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005. The revised SSA Framework for Implementation provides abroad out line of approaches and implementation strategies, within which States can frame more detailed guidelines keeping in view their specific social, economic and institutional contexts.

1.6.3 The revised programmatic and financial norms for SSA interventions are at Appendix -I

2. All Children In School. - 2.1 Background

2.1.1 Universal access to elementary education requires schooling facilities within reasonable reach of all children. If schools are not located in or near the habitations where children reside, children are unlikely to complete schooling, even if they are formally enrolled in schools. The RTE Act provides children's access to elementary schools within the defined area or limits of neighbourhood:

Section 6. - 'The appropriate governments and local authorities shall establish, within the area or limits of a neighbourhood, a school, where it is not already established, within a period of three years from the commencement of the Act'.

2.1.2 Further, the Act places a compulsion on the State to ensure that no child from the weaker sections or disadvantaged groups is discriminated against in any manner or prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education.

2.1.3 A neighbourhood school is a school located within the defined limits or area of neighbourhood, which has been notified by the State Government under the State RTE Rules. The Central Government has notified the area or limits of neighbourhood to factor in distance norms, with provision for relaxation of norms in places with difficult terrain where there may be risk of landslides, floods, lack of roads and in general, danger for young children in the approach from their homes to the school. In the case of children with disabilities, the Central RTE Rules provide for appropriate and safe transportation arrangements to enable them to attend school and complete elementary education. The neighbourhood norms provided in the Central RTE Rules would be applicable to Union Territories without Legislature for opening new schools. In the case of all other States and Union Territories, the neighbourhood norms notified in the State/UT RTE Rules would be applicable for opening new schools under SSA.

2.2 Mapping to Facilitate Children's Access in Neighbourhood Schools. - 2.2.1 States/UTs need to arrive at a clear picture of current availability of schools within defined area or limits of neighbourhoods. This will require mapping of neighbourhoods or habitations and linking them to specific schools. It is possible that a neighbourhood may be linked to more than one school. Similarly, a school may be linked to more than one neighbourhood. A comprehensive exercise will help to identify gaps and areas where new schools need to be opened.

2.2.2 Section 12 of the RTE Act mandates that (a) all Government and local body schools shall provide free and compulsory education to all children enrolled therein, (b) all aided schools receiving aid or grants to meet whole or part of its expenses shall provide free and compulsory education to such proportion of [children as its annual recurring aid or grants, subject to a minimum of 25%, and (c) all imaided and 'specified category 'schools, namely Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navoday a Vidyalaya, Sainik schools or any other school having a distinct character as specified by notification by the State Govemment/UT, shall provide free and compulsory education to at least 25% children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood]. While determining the need for access of children to neighbourhood schools, the mapping exercise should factor in the availability of seats for children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections not only in Government and local body schools, but also in aided, unaided and special category schools as provided under the RTE Act.

2.3 Social Access. - 2.3.1 The significance of social access in universalising elementary education cannot be undermined. India is a multi-cultural society of numerous regional and local cultures. Hierarchies of caste, economic status and gender relations that characterise Indian society, deeply influence children's access to education. The accident of birth in a particular religion, class, caste or gender should not define and restrict a child's life chances for all times to come. It is important to ensure that the schools respect India's diversity and plurality, and recognise differences arising out of uneven social and economic development. If the language of instruction, even in Class I, in a school in a tribal area is the State language, the child will find the school environment alienating. If teachers in the school are not sensitised to actively dispel traditional perceptions regarding gender or caste roles, they are unlikely to take measures which would help girls, children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections pursue education which is equitable and free of anxiety. The teachers' own patterns of communication with children: the seating arrangements in the classroom, allocation of work between children reinforce or dispel societal perceptions about the 'proper' role and place of girls or children from SC/ST and minority communities. Government schools have a high proportion of first generation school goers and children from marginalised communities. Teachers need to be sensitive to the fact that the home environments of many of these children may not facilitate 'time-dot' punctuality of children or homework or revision of school work. If these are perceived as 'lapses' and the child is punished or the school does not help such children cope with learning, the child is likely to feel discouraged and drop out of formal schooling. The curriculum and textbooks also need to be intrinsically connected with the child's life outside the school, and should reinforce the child's pride in her language, society and way of life, at the same time affording opportunities for learning about the wider world. Teachers and educational administrators must be sensitive to these children, and ensure that, given their difficult circumstances, the children are enabled to participate in and complete elementary education.

2.3.2 School access therefore demands not merely physical access to a neighbourhood school within a notified distance, but also social access by way of addressing ail exclusionary practices in the school, especially those based on caste, class, gender and special needs.

2.3.3 Mapping for access to neighbourhood schools would need to go beyond spatial planning and preparation of distance matrices for school location. The provision of schooling facilities at appropriate locations is an essential pre-requisite to universal elementary education. But mere provision of schooling facility is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend; they may drop out after a few months; or may be absent too many days and cannot cope with the learning load. School mapping exercises will have to incorporate social mapping and should be undertaken with community involvement, to ensure that all children who cannot access school for social, cultural and economic reasons, are enabled to do so. School and social mapping is a powerful means of mobilising the community to ensure that all children attend schools and complete elementary education. A school map will help to determine the changes necessary in schools, and build a dynamic vision of the education services, including infrastructure, teachers, and equipment, required so that all children, irrespective of their caste, religion or gender are provided education of reasonable quality.

Institutional flexibility. - An important aspect of planning for universal access that flows directly from the thrust on a right and equity oriented approach is the need for creation of capacity within the education system and the school for addressing the diversified learning needs of different groups of children, who are now in the school system. The learning needs of children cannot be compromised because of limitations of the system. Planning and implementation for universal access in the right based approach would require an understanding of community needs and circumstances as well as decentralised decision making for meeting the diversified needs of children.

Flexible academic cycle. - Education of many children is often interrupted because of a mismatch in the academic calendar and school timings with the life pattern of the community. The academic calendar may not adequately factor in the implications of community's economic and social circumstances on children's -attendance and participation. Centralised decisions mandating uniform academic calendar and school timings, which do not factor in social and economic events such as festivals, seasons for sowing, harvesting are among the main reasons for children's irregular attendance and participation in the schooling process. There is a need for decentralisation of processes and procedures in order to address the local specific needs to harmonise the academic and community calendars.

Flexible school timings. - Flexibility of school timings has two aspects, namely (i) flexibility to accommodate the local context such as nature of occupations of the community and children's responsibilities outside the school, in the school timings, and (ii) flexibility for certain children, whose circumstances may not allow them to attend school with 'time-dot' punctuality. For example, there are children in urban areas, who are required to fetch water for their families from a public facility which may delay their attendance in schools. Similarly, in rural areas, some children have to fetch water from far off places, collect fire wood or are engaged in some other activity which may marginally delay their arrival in school, or some children would require a short break during school hours to carry lunch for their family members working in the fields. Children in urban areas who commute a long distance using public transport may get late for school for reasons beyond their control. There may be children who would want to leave a little early on Friday for prayers.

Mapping for access to neighbourhood schools.

•  What is the 'neighbourhood' that the school serves? Does it serve one or more habitations? Is there more than one school serving the habitation?

•  What is the situation of children in the whole area that the school serves in terms of their enrollment, attendance and retention, completion of elementary education? Do all children go to school? Are there children in some habitations and hamlets which form part of the school's 'neighbourhood' who are not accessing school?

•  Who are the children not going to school? Are they involved in child labour or domestic chores? Flow can they be freed of their wage earning and domestic work responsibilities so that they can attend school?

•  Are all girls going to school? Are there girls who have been married off at an early age and are forced to stay at home? Are all children from SC, ST and Minority communities attending school? Are they unable to attend school on account of social distance or discrimination? Flow can the social distance be bridged and the school environment made discrimination free, so that they can attend school?

•  Are children with special needs able to attend school? How can they be facilitated to access school?

•  How will we ensure that all children come to school and participate in the learning process

•  regularly? How can we create a data base of children in the catchment area of the 'neighbourhood' school?

•  Are there children who require Special Training for appropriate admission to school? How will their needs be addressed?

•  What is the availability of teachers, teaching learning material, library facilities and infrastructure in the school?

•  What are the resources available to the school in terms of school grant, teacher grant, maintenance grant, teaching learning material, scholarships, infrastructure, drinking water, toilets, mid-day meal, etc? Is this being optimally utilised?

•  How can the school benefit from provisions under other schemes, such as MGNREGA, JNNURM, TSC, DWM, and NRHM?

•  How will we ensure adequacy of teachers, teaching learning material, infrastructure and other resources?

•  How can we support the school?

2.3.4 School mapping would include the following steps: (i) environment building in the village; (ii) conduct of a household survey; (iii) preparation of a map indicating different households, the number of children in each household and their participation status in school; (iv) preparation of a village/ school education register; (v) presentation of the map and analysis to the people; (vi) preparation of a proposal for improved education facilities in the village; which would form the basis of the School Development Plan mandated under the RTE Act.

2.4 Upgradation of Alternate Schooling Facilities. - 2.4.1 In the past, SSA has supported alternate schooling facilities in the form of centres under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE). EGS and AIE Centres across the country have been invaluable in reaching education to children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, especially children in unserved habitations. However, EGS centres were, since inception, envisaged as transitory measures to provide schooling till such time as regular, full time schooling facilities could be provided in the area concerned. AIE centres catered to the bridging needs of out of school children till they were mainstreamed into regular schools. Indeed, the RTE mandate for full time schooling facilities for all children implies that EGS centres will now have to be upgraded to regular primary schools, and all children availing AIE will need to be mainstreamed into full time schools in a time bound manner. Therefore, in keeping with the RTE mandate:

(i) EGS Centres: Existing EGS centres will continue to be supported for a period of two years (2010-11, 2011-12) during which period States would take steps to convert the EGS centres into regular primary schools. No new EGS centres will be sanctioned under SSA with effect from the financial year 2010-11. In case, the existing EGS centre is not required to be converted into a regular school, on account of an existing neighbourhood school, the EGS center would be closed down and children mainstreamed in the neighbourhood school.

(ii) In place of AIE Centres, facilities for 'Special Training' will be provided to out-of-school children, who have been admitted to school, to enable them to cope with age-appropriate enrollment and participation in regular elementary schools.

2.5 Enabling Provisions under SSA to Universalise Access. - 2.5.1 Opening new schools: The revised SSA norms provide for opening of new primary and upper primary schools within the area of the limits of the neighbourhood as laid down by the State Government under the State RTE Rules. All new schools opened under SSA will be provided requisite school infrastructure, teachers and teaching learning equipment as mandated under the Schedule to the RTE Act. With a view to facilitating States to move towards composite elementary schools, the revised norms provide that new upper primary schools/sections will be opened in the campuses of existing primary schools.

2.5.2. Overcoming barriers to opening new schools, upgradation and expansion of schools Opening of schools within the area/limits of neighbourhood is the responsibility of the appropriate Government. The appropriate Government will, therefore, ensure that land is made available for opening new schools as also upgradation and expansion of schools. The appropriate Government would need to overcome barriers emerging out of unavailability of land of Gram Panchayat/ ULB for opening of school. The right based approach necessitates sensitisation of authorities dealing with land allotments in the Revenue, Panchayat Raj, and Forest Departments to provide land for schools on priority. Provisions such as transportation and hostel are exception measures for areas where opening a school is not viable. Provision of hostels for urban deprived children without adult protection is primarily to provide them with institutional care and support facilities to address their vulnerability.

2.5.3 Special Training for out-of-school children. - The RTE Act makes specific provision for Special Training for age-appropriate admission for out-of-school children. A majority of out-of-school children belong to disadvantaged communities: Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Muslims, migrants, children with special needs, urban deprived children, working children, children in other difficult circumstances, for example, those living in difficult terrain, children from displaced families, and areas affected by civil strife, etc need Special Training.

2.5.3.1 Special Training for never enrolled children or those who dropped out before completing elementary education would require an identification of children, who must be enrolled. For this the State Government, Local Authority and School Management Committee will need to undertake a community level school mapping exercise. The neighbourhood and school mapping exercise will be followed by (i) immediate enrollment in school (ii) organisation of Special Training of flexible duration to enable the child to be at par with other children, (iii) actual admission of the child in the age-appropriate class on completion of Special Training, and his/her participation in all class activities, (iv) continued support to the child, once admitted to the regular school, so that the child can integrate with the class socially, emotionally and academically. The RTE Act also provides that such children shall continue to be provided free and compulsory elementary education even after they cross 14 years of age

2.5.3.2 The duration of Special Training may be flexible, varying from 3 months to 2 years, depending on the child's needs. Special Training may be in the form of residential or non-residential courses organised, preferably in the premises of the school, but if such facilities are not available in school, alternate facilities which are safe, secure and accessible may be identified and used. At the end of the duration of Special Training for a particular child, the suitability of placing the child in a class may be reviewed. For example, if a 10- year old child was admitted to Class IV, and received two years of Special Training till age 12, an assessment may be made as to whether the child could cope better in Class V or VI in the formal school, and the child appropriately placed. Even after a child is appropriately placed in the formal school, she may continue to receive special attention by the teacher to enable her to successfully integrate with the rest of the class, academically and emotionally. SSA will provide support for Special Training as envisaged under the RTE Act for out-of- school children, who have been admitted to regular schools to ensure that they are integrated into the school system. Such support will be in the form of residential or non-residential courses, as needed and such children will continue even beyond 14 years of age to complete elementary education.

2.5.4 Residential facilities. - There are certain areas in the country where it may not be viable to set up schools. These include sparsely populated or hilly and densely forested areas with difficult geographical terrains. There are also densely populated urban areas, where it is difficult to get land for establishing schools. Also, in urban areas there are a number of urban deprived children: homeless and street children in difficult circumstances, without adult protection, who require not merely day- schooling facilities, but also lodging and boarding facilities. Residential facilities may be provided for these children under SSA. However, there may be an inherent difficulty in locating such schools all over the country; the establishment of residential schools should therefore be restricted, as an 'exception' measure to sparsely populated, hilly/forested terrains and for urban deprived children, street children and children without adult protection.

2.5.4.1 For urban deprived and children without adult protection. - Children on the streets may suffer from many denials and vulnerabilities: these include deprivation of responsible adult protection, coercion to work to eat each day, work in unhealthy occupations like rag-picking, begging and sex work, abysmally poor sanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition from begging, a range of psycho- social stresses, physical abuse and sexual exploitation, and exposure to hard drug abuse. For such children SSA will provide support for residential facilities as per the following interventions:

(a) Redeploying public buildings and infrastructure. - Lack of buildings because of the high cost of real estate in cities is the severest bottle-neck to provide facilities for urban deprived, vulnerable children. The Government can at best fund a few 'model' hostels, but this would not cover the tens of thousands of street children in every city. Most State and local governments have large unused and under-utilised buildings and infrastructure , which need to be redeployed and shared with street children. The best and most economical approach, and one that has the potential to reach every street child, is to share spaces in existing schools that are vacant. Such buildings may need only small additions for toilets, bathing places and a kitchen. Such an approach also has the potential to lead to integration, dignity and the learning hands-on of egalitarian compassion and pluralism.

(b) Refurbishing unused old buildings. - The sharing of existing schools should be the preferred model. But it is also possible to secondarily rely o n refurbishing unused old buildings, with additions and alterations. The State and municipal governments have many buildings that are unused and under-used which can be allotted and upgraded as residential homes. These can be old school buildings, or other municipal or other departmental buildings. Ideally these residential schools should also be developed as regular primary schools, so they approximate the first model over a period of time.

(c) New residential facilities. - The last option would be the construction of new residential facilities for children without adult protection, in which case the norms pertaining to KGBVs would apply. The civil work cost of the hostels will be within the existing ceiling for civil works per district.

2.5.4.2 Residential facilities to serve children in sparsely populated areas. - SSA would support the construction of residential facilities for boys and girls to serve children in sparsely populated areas of tribal, desert or hilly districts, where it may not be viable to set up a full-fledged school. Such facilities may be in the form of hostel in the premises of an existing primary /upper primary school, or a residential school where primary/upper primary school does not exist. SSA approval for such facilities is, however, contingent on States conducting a school mapping to ensure that there is no 'neighbourhood' school in the area and transportation facility to and fro the school nearest to the neighbourhood is not practical, and identifying all children who would benefit from such intervention.

This model has been adopted in Andhra Pradesh, where some residential schools for children without adult protection have been set up as part of existing schools in Hyderabad with support from Aman Vedike. This has been found to have many advantages: not only low costs, but the integration of children with families and homes with those who have been deprived, to the great pedagogic advantage of both. Many government schools also welcomed this, because it has pushed up the enrolment in the schools, and made them more viable.

2.5.4.3 Thus, SSA will provide support for (i) addition of spaces such as toilets, bathing spaces, kitchens in existing schools proposed to be used as residential facilities for street children without adult protection , (ii) refurbishing of unused buildings also for use as residential facilities for street children without adult protection, and (iii) construction of residential facilities to serve children in remote, sparsely populated areas, including tribal, desert and hilly areas and street children without adult protection in urban areas. The design should be inclusive to serve children with disabilities as well. The construction of full-fledged hostels would be in accordance with KGBV norms. Addition of spaces in under- utilised existing schools or refurbishing of unused existing schools would be examined on a case to case basis. Running costs of the hostel facilities would be as per KGBV norms.

2.5.5 Transportation or Escort Facilities. - Children in remote habitations with sparse populations or in urban areas where availability of land is a problem or children belonging to extremely deprived groups or children with special needs may not find access to schools. Such children may be provided support for transportation or escort facilities. The requirement of fluids for this facility will be kept under the National Component, to be utilized on receipt/appraisal of district specific proposals from the State, justifying the need for providing transportation facility to children in sparsely populated, hilly/densely forested/desert terrains, as well as urban areas where unavailability of land makes it unviable to set up schools as per the 'neighbourhood' norms of the State.

Sister Cyril of Loreto School, Sealdah, has shown how it is fully feasible to provide full education to both regular and street children. The Loreto homes are all located within existing schools. The children enjoy the benefits of being inside a regular school with all the activities, the interaction with the more privileged peer group of the regular school, the rough and tumble of normal school life and the friendly interaction with other children of various backgrounds, creeds and castes. This positive environment enables each child to grow and reach her full potential. When girls come off the street, they have to be prepared during the initial period for attending classes. They will not go to a regular school until they can fit into a class of approximately their own age group. This normally takes one year or less. They are taught on a one to one basis by the regular children of the school during their obligatory Work Education classes.

2.5.6 School Uniforms. - The RTE Act mandates free and compulsory education for all children in Government schools. Uniforms constitute an expense which poor families are often not able to afford, and thus becomes a barrier for many children pursue and complete elementary education. SSA will provide two sets of uniform to all girls, SC, ST children and Below Poverty Line (BPL) children, wherever (i) State Governments have incorporated provision of school uniforms as a child entitlement in their State RTE Rules, and (ii) State Governments are not already providing uniforms from the State budgets. In case, any State Government is partially subsidizing the cost of uniform being supplied to children in school, then the amount under SSA would be restricted to the remaining.

2.5.6.1 The purpose of school uniforms is to inspire a sense of belonging and ownership of the school for the children using its services. It is not to instill a sense of regimented, homogenized order. Therefore, decisions on design of uniforms and their procurement should be local rather than centralized. Procurement of uniforms would be in decentralized mode at the SMC level.

2.6 Addressing Systemic Issues for Universal Access. - 2.6.1 Removal of financial barriers. - The RTE Act provides that no child in a neighbourhood school, as notified by the State Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee, charge or expense that may prevent her/him from enrolling, participating and completing elementary education. States may ensure convergence of resources from different schemes of the Central and State Governments to remove financial barriers to school access. Some expenses such as textbooks, uniforms and transportation can be defrayed under SSA, unless these are already being provided under any other scheme of the State Government Free noon meals will continue to be provided under the MDM Scheme. Other schemes of the State Governments and local authorities, such as scholarships, school bags, stationary, bus passes, etc., will contribute to meet the 'hidden' costs of education. All entitlements as notified in the State RTE Rules should be provided through existing State/Central schemes that may be further expanded to include new and specific items for the purpose of removal of financial barriers to school access.

2.6.2 Removal of procedural barriers. - The RTE Act also provides for removal of procedural barriers to school access. It provides that no child shall be denied admission in a school for want of a Birth or Transfer Certificate. The Central RTE Rules provide that wherever a Birth Certificate under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Certification Act, 1886 is not available, an anganwadi record or an ANM record or a declaration of the age of the child by the parent or guardian would be deemed to be proof of age. Similarly, State RTE Rules may notify the documents that may suffice in the absence of a Birth Certificate. Delay in issue of Transfer Certificate shall not be a ground for denial of admission to a child in the new school. Executive instructions may be issued to all Headmasters to issue Transfer Certificates on priority, whenever a child requires it.

2.6.3 Any-time admission in school. - Admission of a child in school is a fundamental right and it cannot be denied at any point of time. Ideally, all children should be enrolled in school at the beginning of the academic session. However, in the case of children in difficult circumstances, including children affected by migration, displacement or ill health, etc schools mav need to be flexible to allow admission at any time during the session. The Central RTE Rules provide that children admitted after six months of the beginning of the academic session may be provided Special Training as determined by the Head Teacher of the school to enable him/her to complete studies.

2.6.4 Ensuring an eight-year elementary education cycle. - The National System of Education envisages a common educational structure. At the elementary level, the national system of education comprises five years of primary education and three years of upper primary. Efforts have been made to follow an eight-year elementary education cycle through out the country; however, several States continue to follow a seven-year elementary education cycle. Existing SSA norms provide support to States to move towards an eight- year elementary education cycle through provisioning for additional teachers and classroom for Class VIII at the upper primary stage.

In addition, SSA will provide support for teaching learning equipment for Classes V and VIII, in order to facilitate States to adopt an eight-year elementary education cycle.

2.7 Interventions for Universalising Access

2.8 Summing Up. - 2.8.1 Universal access is an essential component of UEE. Access does not constitute mere physical availability of school; it implies facilitating full, free and joyful participation of children in learning. Any barrier to children's learning means that access has been denied fully or in part. Access comprises children's participation in learning by addressing social, economical and linguistic barriers in addition to barriers arising out of physical distance, topography and infrastructure etc. Interventions for universalising access, therefore, cannot be limited to school infrastructure, residential facility or transportation, but must encompass curriculum, including 'hidden' curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Equitable access must amalgamate with equitable quality to institutionalise and sustain universal access. This would be necessary for enabling real access to children disadvantaged in socioeconomic, cultural and linguistic terms. Such an understanding of access must percolate to the grassroots level for enriching the process of planning, implementation and monitoring, and moving away from the present practice of viewing access as a stand-alone intervention dealing merely with the physical availability of school and infrastructure. States which are considered well provided in terms of physical access must introspect in this perspective to determine whether or not access is really available to all children.

3. Addressing Equity Issues In Elementary Education. - 3.1 Context

3.1.1. Bridging gender and socia1 category gaps in elementary education is one of the four goals of SSA. Consequently, SSA attempts to reach out to girls and children belonging to SC, ST and Muslim Minority communities. SSA has also given attention to urban deprived children, children affected by periodic migration, and children living in remote and scattered habitations. SSA has identified Special Focus Districts on the basis of adverse performance on indicators of enrolment, retention, and gender parity, as well as concentration of SC, ST and minority communities. KGBV and NPEGEL have played an important role in furthering the goal of girls' education in educationally backward blocks of the country. Besides these, SSA is contributing to inclusive education of children with special needs.

3.1.2 However, given the complex and chronic nature of inequality and exclusion, the strategies adopted so far have tended to be somewhat isolated, fragmented and devoid of institutional support. As a result, the many forms that exclusion takes, and the different ways in which it is manifested, have not been sufficiently addressed across the components of access, participation, retention, achievement and completion of elementary education. This makes exclusion of the single most important challenge in universalising elementary education. With the RTE having come into force this challenge must be addressed with a sense of urgency.

3.2 RTE, Equity and Social Inclusion. - 3.2.1 The RTE Act, 2009 has defined children belonging to disadvantaged groups and children belonging to weaker sections as follows:

Disadvantaged Groups are defined as those that belonged to the "SC, ST, socially and educationally backward class or such other groups having disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic, gender, or such other factors as may be specified by the appropriate Government".

Weaker Sections are defined as those "belonging to such parent or guardian whose annual income is lower than the minimum specified by the appropriate Government by notification".

3.2.2 The Act requires the appropriate government and every local authority to "ensure that the child belonging to weaker sections and the child belonging to disadvantaged groups are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education on any grounds".

3.2.3 In stating, thus, the RTE Act opens up the whole sphere of circumstances which come in the way of a child's enrolment and participation in school, and his/her completion of the elementary stage. This necessitates an attempt at listing of categories of children, who might be covered under Section 2(d) and (e) and spelling out possible strategies to prevent explicit and implicit discrimination in pursuing and completing elementary education.

3.2.4 Gender cuts across the categories of disadvantaged groups as well as weaker sections. The RTE Act in different sections makes reference to gender and girls' education both explicitly and implicitly. Some of the relevant provisions are: no discrimination against children from 'disadvantaged groups and 'weaker sections' on any grounds (including gender); inclusion of women in school monitoring committees; provision of good quality education that includes equity issues, curriculum development in conformity with constitutional stipulations, training, enrolment in age appropriated classes (which will largely apply to girls, especially from disadvantaged communities).

3.3 Approach - 3.3.1 The enactment of the RTE requires addressing gender and social equity within a framework that is holistic and systemic. The approach will be informed by the following perspective, which is in keeping with the principles laid out by the Report of the Committee on Implementation of RTE Act and the Resultant Revamp of SSA:

•  Equity will mean not only equal opportunity, butal so creation of conditions in which the disadvantaged sections of the society - children of SC, ST, Muslim minority, landless agricultural workers and children with special needs, etc. can avail of the opportunity.

•  Access will not be confined to ensuring that a school becomes accessible to all children within specified distance but implies an understanding of the educational needs and predicament of the traditionally excluded categories - the SC, ST and other sections of the most disadvantaged groups, the Muslim minority, girls in general, and children with special needs.

•  Gender will be a critical cross-cutting equity issue and will imply not only making efforts to enable girls to keep pace with boys but to view education in the perspective spelt out in the National Policy on Education, 1986/92; i.e. a decisive intervention to bring about a basic change in the status of women.

•  Centrality of classroom practices and processes where the culture in the classroom, and beyond the classroom, will produce an inclusive environment for children, especially for girls from oppressed and marginalised back grounds, and free from discrimination.

•  Quality with Equity. - Equity will be seen as an integral part of the agenda on improving quality and will, therefore, encompass not just looking at issues pertaining to teacher training and education, curriculum, language, educational planning and management.

3.3.2 In the context of RTE, the equity agenda of SSA would work towards:

(i) Moving from an incentives -and provisions-based approach to a right and entitlement approach

(ii) Developing a deeper understanding on issues contributing to exclusion and disadvantage, arising from entrenched hierarchical structures (social, language, cultural, religious backgrounds), prevalent stereotypes and the challenges faced by children from disadvantaged communities including within the school space

(iii) Assessing needs of different excluded and marginalised groups and communities and consequently addressing these needs through contextualised strategies.

(iv) Encouraging innovative thinking and dialogue to identify holistic, multi-pronged and viable strategies to address issues of gender, equity exclusion that will cut across the different SSA goals.

(v) Encouraging up-scaling and institutionalisation of interventions and strategies found effective, viable and sustainable with a view to strengthening the mainstream education system.

3.3.3 Equity in SSA would, therefore, mean focus on addressing exclusion of girls and children belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslim communities who constitute the bulk of excluded children in the country. It will also refer to a new category of excluded children - those living in areas affected by civil strife. It will also take into account, children affected from migration, urban deprived children, homeless children, children in remote and sparsely populated habitations, other groups and categories of excluded children and CWSN. It will also mean including gender and other equity issues within the quality goal.

3.4 Gender and Girls' Education. - 3.4.1 Perspective. - SSA acknowledges that reaching out to the girl child is central to the efforts to universalise elementary education. SSA's focus on gender parity is rooted in the National Policy on Education and the POA (1986/92) which brought centre-stage the issue of gender and girls' education. More importantly, it linked with the education of women and girls to their empowerment. NPE states that education should be a transformative force, build women's self-confidence, and improve their position in society and challenge inequalities.

3.4.2 The approach to gender and girls' education will be based on the report of the Committee on Implementation of the RTE Act and the Resultant Revamp of SSA, which pointed out that although gender has become an accepted category in policy and programme formulation, it continues to be understood in limited ways. It is largely seen as a biological category (concerning only girls and women); as a stand-alone category (not related to other issues or other forms of discrimination); and in terms of provision of opportunities so that girls can 'catch up' with boys and 'close the gap'. Thus, achieving gender parity has been an overarching concern of the education system. While this is of critical importance and has led to some impressive improvements in girls' enrolment, retention and completion, it has also led to gender being understood primarily in quantitative terms.

3.4.3 In the next phase of SSA implementation, gender and social disadvantage must become integral to concerns of quality and equity. Gender as-a crosscutting issue should be viewed as an integral and visible part of the quality agenda. Girls are not a homogeneous or singular category and gender does not operate in isolation but in conjunction with other social categories resulting in girls 'having to experience multiple forms of disadvantage. The dimensions of location (rural-urban), caste, class, religion, ethnicity, disabilities etc. intersect with gender to create a complex reality. Curriculum, textbooks, pedagogic practices, need to capture the entire web of social and economic relations that determine an individual's location in the social reality and shapes her living experiences. Developing such an understanding is necessary for improving classroom practices, curriculum, training and strategies for reaching the remaining out-of- school children. Data on gender should be further disaggregated by other axes of disadvantage, it must be analysed and used for planning purposes.

3.4.4 While there has been improvement and innovation in the area of gender and girls education, many interventions like gender training remain largely sporadic and continue to be seen as 'add-ons'. With RTE coming into effect, the thrust would now be to mainstream good practices and processes within the education system.

3.4.5 Efforts pertaining to gender have focused mainly on females. As a result, several women have been empowered and a space has been made to raise gender concerns and develop a better understanding of the structural and social barriers to girls' education. However, since the long-term objective is to transform unequal gender relations and bring about systemic change, therefore, it would be equally important to build on these gains and include boys and men more significantly in this process.

3.4.6 In order to address gender, it is, therefore, necessary to go beyond specific schemes and provisions and be treated as a systemic issue.

3.5 Girls: Access & Retention. - 3.5.1 Despite significant improvement in the enrolment of girls, girls from disadvantaged communities continue to form the bulk of out- of school children. Therefore, access continues to be an equity issue in the case of girls. Also, there is a need to consider retention as an equity issue, as SC, ST, Muslim girls, are vulnerable, and most likely to dropout. Parents of children from such communities often have limited means, and any adversity compels girls from such communities to leave the system that they had difficulty of entering in the first place. The overt and tacit forms of discrimination that are embedded in the school environment (classrooms and beyond) make schooling a difficult experience. A key focus in SSA will be to address this challenge.

3.5.2 With regard to access and retention the focus would be on older girls, where the need is the greatest. Support measures that address economic, academic and social dimensions that lead to dropout would need to be planned as a more cohesive intervention. Measures would include transport, escorts, counselling, helping them negotiate domestic work burdens, community support mechanisms, and academic support depending on the nature of the problem.

3.5.3 Moreover, as adolescence is a crucial and complex stage of life where young people discover issues related to sexuality and develop a sense of self, innovative measures to bolster girls' self-esteem and confidence (in addition to imparting the regular curricula content) would be included. Attention would be paid to addressing the particular needs of girls from other disadvantaged groups or those living in difficult circumstances (street children, migrant children, and girls in conflict situations). Girls in such situations are particularly vulnerable and face several security concerns. Some activities already conducted as part of the NPEGEL Scheme (where operational), and SS A's Innovation Fund could be used for supporting those interventions which cannot be supported under any other norm.

3.6 Gender, Equity and Quality. - 3.6.1 Issues of quality and equity are inextricably linked. It is important to understand that poor quality impacts on equity and poor equity reinforces poor quality. Therefore, efforts which are aimed at one must also include the other. Within SSA, quality concerns are being increasingly highlighted, and the approach to quality improvement is undergoing a major shift to become integrated, comprehensive and overarching. In the context of implementing the RTE Act, this approach shift to quality would have to be enriched whereby the curriculum, textbooks, teaching-learning materials, the use of space in the classroom, infrastructure, assessment and teacher trainings are looked at holistically and mutually reinforce each other. Each of these issues would need to be addressed by a gender perspective.

3.7 Special Schemes for Girls. - 3.7.1 National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level

3.7.1.1 The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) is a focused intervention of Government of India, to reach the "Hardest to Reach" girls, especially those not in school. NPEGEL is a separate, gender-distinct but integral component of SSA, which provides additional support for enhancing girls' education over and above the investments for girls' education through normal SSA interventions.

3.7.1.2 NPEGEL is implemented in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) where the level of rural female literacy is less than the national average i.e. 46.13% (Census, 2001) and the gender gap in literacy is above the national average i.e. 21.67 % (Census, 2001); in blocks of districts which are not covered under EBBs but have at least 5% SC/ST population and where SC/ST female literacy is below 10%; and also in selected urban slums. To keep the emphasis on the programme as a distinct component of the SSA a separate account is maintained for NPEGEL. [NPEGEL has been amended twice since its inception, first, in July, 2007 to provide for block focused projects for girls at risk/difficult circumstances, and later in December 2010] to provide flexibility in devising and implementing need based interventions.

3.7.1.3 Various reviews have identified concerns related to the scheme as being-uneven quality; fragmented approach where activities are picked up from the indicative list and do not form a cohesive strategy; overlap of activities with other components of the scheme such as the AIE component; local planning not strong enough; activities/ strategies related to gender have remained an add-on and not mainstreamed; no review of quality of modules etc. being produced; insufficient impact of the gender training programmes on making classroom practices more gender sensitive; impact of the model cluster school is not certain; etc. The planning and implementation process should keep in mind that the problems mentioned are in line with the provisions of the RTE. Efforts should be made to identify good practices from different States as well as strengths and weaknesses in the light of SSA transformation to implement the RTE.

3.7.2 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)

3.7.2.1 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) provides for setting up residential schools at the upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities. KGBVs are set up in educationally backward blocks, where the female rural literacy is below the national average (i.e. below 46.13% as per Census 2001) and gender gap in literacy is above the national average of 21.67%. Further, the scope of the scheme was enlarged to cover the blocks that have rural female literacy below 30% and urban areas with female literacy more than the national female literacy (urban) of53.67% as per Census 2001. This was again enlarged to cover all the educationally backward blocks with rural female literacy of 46.13%.

3.7.2.2 Such residential schools are set up only in those educationally backward blocks which do not have residential schools at the upper primary level for girls under any other scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs or the State Government. This shall be ensured by the District Level Authority of SSA at the time of actual district level planning of KGBV initiatives by coordinating with the other Departments/Ministries.

3.7.2.3 [KGBV programme has been revised twice since its inception, first in April 2008 when criteria for identifying EBB was revised, and, later, in April, 2010, when the criteria was revised again besides the decision to allow unit cost for civil works according to the state SoR rather than the fixed cost]. The importance of the KGBV Scheme in addressing the educational needs of girls from marginalised communities has been highlighted in various reviews. KGBVs run by MS and NGOs are particularly successful as they augment resources to bring in empowerment-oriented content. Lessons can be learnt from their experiences. The scheme would be strengthened with the development of an appropriate curriculum framework which would include empowerment issues, teaching- learning material, teacher training programmes and monitoring and assessment mechanisms keeping in mind the contexts, and age of the learners and the residential nature of the scheme which could be taken up with the involvement of experienced organizations, especially with a strong gender orientation.

3.7.3 Mahila Samakhya

3.7.3.1 Mahila Samakhya (MS) programme was started nearly 20 years ago and has been recognised as an effective strategy for creating circumstances for girls 'education and empowerment. The critical thing in this programme is that its agenda and priorities are set by women's groups, called Mahila Sanghas, themselves. At the time, when this programme was started questions were raised whether it would in fact contribute to girls' education. Over the years Mahila Sanghas and their federations have themselves given a place of importance to girls' education. They play an active role in working towards removal of barriers to the participation of girls in education.

3.7.3.2 The Mahila Sanghas ensure that the education system is sensitive to the needs and interests of girls through monitoring and ensuring accountability in village schools, addressing teacher absenteeism, M D M implementation and quality, etc. Mahila Samakhya has demonstrated the possibilities and practicable ways of creating and using gender-sensitive curriculum, class room pedagogy, teacher training and life-skills.

Sangha women are often members of village level committees, and play an important role in SSA implementation and monitoring.

3.7.3.3 This spirit of MS and the overall tenor of the RTE provide enormous scope for synergic outputs. Special mention in this regard should be made of the fact that occasionally one year's of MS being expected to sub-serve the goals of SSA. This would not be in accordance with the stipulation of NPE, 1986. MS should continue to zealously adhere to its non-negotiable principles, including the stipulation which gives to them space for making their own decisions regarding programme priorities and implementation strategies. The role of M S would be in monitoring and grievance redressal; development of training strategies for SMCs especially women members; Mahila Shikshan Kendras have demonstrated ability to run bridge courses and to develop necessary curricula and teaching-learning arrangements. They could make an important contribution in conducting programmes for children who get admitted to age-appropriate classes but require preparatory courses to keep pace with other students. MSK can function as centre for special training for out of school children who have been enrolled in regular schools.

3.8 Inclusion of Children from Marginalised Communities

3.8.1 Strategies

3.8.1.1 As a first step in the exercise of bringing children from marginalised backgrounds into school a careful mapping of these children - who they are and where they live - will have to be undertaken systematically. While SSA has already identified Special Focus Districts (SFDs) with concentration of SC, ST and Muslim communities, a further unpacking of the layers of exclusion that exist within these districts will be required by the local authorities, who have been given the role of identifying out-of- school children and ensuring that they are brought into school. Since the RT E Act guarantees elementary education in a neighbourhood school, I the neighbourhood can be the best unit for identification of marginalised children. In order to do this job effectively, it will be imperative that the local authorities work closely with communities and community-based groups I that have links within communities and can help in identifying the out-of-school children.

3.8.1.2 The School Management Committees (SMCs) envisaged in the RTE Act would have to play a key role in the mapping exercise as well as in ensuring inclusive strategies in the School Development Plan, the preparation of which has also been entrusted to them.

3.8.2 Understanding exclusionary practices

3.8.2.1 In addition to the mapping mentioned above, an in-depth understanding of the realities of the situation faced by marginalised children at the community and school level, including an identification of all the points of exclusion from the level of the household up to education system will be required.

3.8.2.2 Exclusionary practices often begin even before a child reaches the school premises. A SC girl, for instance, travelling through an upper caste hamlet on her way to school may face harassment on her way that could well discourage her, and dissuade her parents from sending her to school. Parents of children from Muslim families may also have similar inhibitions in sending their children to schools that are located in area dominated by the majority community. Safety of children regularly subjected to derogatory name calling, rebuking, even physical harassment is a significant factor determining participation of children from such backgrounds in school. Children from SC, ST and Muslim communities have both common as well as unique needs and challenges impeding attempts to their inclusion. Following is the brief account of needs and nature of exclusion pertaining to each community as extracted from the Report of the Committee on Implementation of RTE and Resultant Revamp of SSA.

3.8.2.3 Following is the broad listing of examples of exclusion of SC children:

Exclusion by Teachers. - (i) Segregated seating arrangements in the classroom with SC children made to sit separately and typically at the back of the classroom.

(ii) Undue harshness in reprimanding SC children, especially in relation to upper caste children. For instance, in scolding children for coming late to school, in resolving fights between children, condoning name-calling by upper caste children, etc..

(iii) Not giving time and attention to SC children in the classroom, such as not checking their homework or class work, not answering their queries - even rebuking them for asking questions in class.

(iv) Excluding SC children from public functions in the school. These include non-participation in the morning assembly or other public events such as on Republic Day or Independence Day. Routinely making them sit at the back of the classroom.

(v) Making derogatory remarks about SC children - their supposed inability to keep up with academic work.

(vi) Denying SC children the use of school facilities, including water sources. Keeping water segregated; even preventing SC children from using the school taps or containers used to store drinking water have been reported from many areas.

(vii) Asking SC children to do menial tasks in school, including cleaning the school premises and even the toilets.

Exclusion by peer group. - (i) Calling SC children by caste names.

(ii) Not including SC children in games and play activities in the classroom or in break time when children go out to play; SC children often return to their own neighbourhoods to play with non- enrolled SC children there.

(iii) Not sitting with SC children in the classroom.

Exclusion by the system. - (i) Incentives schemes meant for SC children not being implemented in full.

(ii) Lack of acknowledgement of SC role models in the curriculum or by teachers.

(iii) Reinforcing caste characteristics in syllabi and textbooks.

(iv) Lack of sensitisation of teachers in teacher education and training.

(v) In sufficient recruitment of SC teachers.

3.8.2.4.The interventions for children belonging to Scheduled Caste communities have to be based on the intensive micro-planning addressing the needs of every child. The following suggested list of interventions for inclusion of SC children can help in addressing the aforestated practices of discrimination and exclusion.

(i) Establishing norms of behaviour within the school for teachers and students.

(ii) Timely detection of the forms of discrimination practiced in a particular context by either teachers or students. This is not an easy task as many forms of discrimination have become part of accepted behaviour and go unnoticed and unchallenged by the majority. Finding ways of listening to children's voices would be crucial to this exercise. Setting up a system of reporting on discriminatory practices at the school level would be a place to start. Complaint boxes that are regularly dealt with at SMC meetings are a suggested intervention.

(iii) Timely redressal of instances of discrimination at the level of the school or Block. Delays in taking action can lead to discouragement on the part of the parents and teachers.

(iv) Escorts to school for SC children.

(v) Establishing norms for class room interactions such as seating patterns that ensure that children are not segregated on the basis of caste, community or gender. The 'Nali-Kali' model of multilevel learning, pioneered in Karnataka in the mid nineties, (based on the Rishi Valley School-in-a-bag programme) is worth revisiting and adopting as it allows children to sit in groups based on levels of learning. This not only breaks social barriers but it also allows for a rotation and thus inter- mingling as children move in and out of the learning circles.

(vi) Co-curricular activities, such as sports, music and drama which tend to break social barriers among children need to be encouraged. They have remained a hugely neglected area and would be an important strategy for increasing the interaction of children as well as allowing children from varied backgrounds to exhibit their talents and get recognition.

(vii) Recognizing the agency of teachers. The teacher is a key figure in the school and can help to either perpetuate or obliterate discriminatory practices. But her role in this process has been largely neglected so far. Interventions in the following areas would go a long way in overturning the current situation.

(a) Sensitisation of teachers from the stage of pre-service training onwards. Special modules should be developed by recognised experts for use in teacher education and training programmes. Special in-service training within the mandated 20 days should be organised to deal with the specific problems of inclusion at the Block level.

(b) Setting norms for teacher behaviour. Some norms related to corporal punishment and abuse have been included in the RTE. Strict monitoring and adherence to these norms would help obliterates some of the malpractices mentioned above, such as making SC child re n perform menial tasks.

(viii) Helping the teacher develop pedagogical tools and classroom practices that allow social barriers to be broken. Technical support in developing such tools should be sought from experts as well as civil society groups.

(ix) Providing adequate infrastructure for elementary schooling in districts with concentration of SC population.

(x) Opening schools in SC concentrated neighbourhood wherever required.

(xi) Special training as per need for age appropriate admission

(xii) Interventions for specific categories of deprived children belonging to scheduled caste community living in difficult circumstances.

(xiii) Monitoring attendance and retention of children regularly

(xiv) Providing context specific intervention in the form of a special facility like residential schools or transport as required.

3.8.2.5 SSA recognises that problems of exclusion often take highly local and context specific forms, and the above mentioned is a general list of issues that have emerged from the studies conducted so far, which need to be addressed urgently.

3.8.2.6 Exclusion of Scheduled Tribe Children: ST children, besides facing some of the exclusionary practices mentioned above for SC children also face problems peculiar to their situation. Tribal populations tend to be concentrated in remote, hilly or heavily forested areas with dispersed populations where even physical access to schools is difficult. If there are schools and teachers, the teachers are unlikely to share the students' social and cultural background or to speak the students' language, leading to a sense of alienation among the children.

3.8.2.7 The Tribal Welfare Department has tried to address this problem by establishing residential or 'Ashram' schools for tribal children; however, there is a need not just for many more residential schools but also for improved quality in these schools. With the notification of the RTE Act, 'Ashram' schools would also come under its purview and have to follow the prescribed norms and standards. Collaboration with the Education Department on residential schools for tribal dominated are as would be required to enable a strengthened and consolidated approach to this problem including recruitment of teachers of similar social and cultural backgrounds and provision of curricula and textbooks that are not alienating for tribal children.

3.8.2.8 The biggest problem faced by tribal children is that of language. Analysis of the educational indicators shows that majority of tribal children drop out of the primary school due to the difference in the school and home language. Teaching materials and textbooks tend to be in a language which could easily the students understand; content of books and syllabi ignore the students' own knowledge and experience and focus only on the dominant language and culture. Not understanding the school language and therefore the course content, the children are unable to cope, end up repeating grades and eventually dropping out.

3.8.2.9 While instruction in the mother tongue is widely recognised as beneficial to language competencies in the first language, achievement in other subject areas, and second language learning, there is no explicit obligation on the states to institute mother tongue education. The "three language formula" that has been the cornerstone of the language policy in India has not been uniformly implemented across the country. In some states such as Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, which are linguistically diverse, the problem is compounded by the multiplicity of linguistic backgrounds represented in a single classroom.

3.8.2.10 Providing multilingual education is not a simple task. Even mother tongue education is challenged by a host of problems such as:

(i) the language may not have a script;

(ii) the language may not even be generally recognised as constituting a legitimate language;

(iii) appropriate terminology for education purposes may still have to be developed within the language;

(iv) there may be a shortage of educational materials in the language;

(v) there may be a lack of appropriately trained teachers;

(vi) there may be resistance to schooling in the mother tongue by students, parents and teachers and

(vii) if there are several mother tongues represented in one class, it compounds the problem even further.

3.8.2.11 Educational research has shown that the mother tongue is the best medium of instruction, and inclusion of tribal children hinges crucially on the language issue. With the RTE Act adding immediacy to their inclusion, this issue must be addressed fully, rather than ignored due to the complexities involved. For this, support will be needed from all quarters interested in and accountable to a pluralistic social order that will ensure enhanced participation of the tribal people. For a start, the Tribal Welfare and Education Departments, responsible for implementation, will need to communicate with each other and interact with NGOs and scholars who could support the processes. The states that have shown some initiative in this regard will also need to be supported.

3.8.2.12 The following suggested list of interventions for inclusion of ST children can help in addressing the above practices of discrimination and exclusion:

(i) Teaching in the local language by recruiting native speakers.

(ii) Development of educational material in local languages using resources available within the community.

(iii) Establishing resource centres in tribal dominated states for providing training, academic and other technical support for development of pedagogic tools and education materials catering to multi lingual situations.

(iv) Training of teachers in multilingual education.

(v) Sensitisation of teachers to tribal cultures and practices.

(vi) Incorporation of local knowledge in the curriculum and textbooks.

(vii) Creating spaces for cultural mingling within schools so as to recognise tribal cultures and practices and obliterate feelings of inferiority and alienation among tribal children.

(viii) Involvement of community members in school activities to reduce social distance between the school and the community.

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

(x) Anganwadis and Balwadis in each school in tribal areas so that the girls are not required to do baby-sitting.

(xi) Special training for non-tribal teachers to work intribalare as, including knowledge of the tribal dialect.

(xii) Special plan for nomadic and migrant workers.

3.8.2.13 Exclusion of Muslim Children : Education of Muslim children continues to be a particularly neglected area in policy and programming in India today. As a result their educational attainments are second only to those of the Scheduled Caste populations in most areas as mentioned in the Sachar Committee Report.

3.8.2.14 Constraints felt by Muslim Children From the scattered bits of evidence that do exist, it can be said that in addition to the general issues of discrimination and harassment faced by children from other disadvantaged and excluded groups, children from Muslim families face some of the following constraints as well:

(i) Denial of admission

(ii) Unfriendly school and class room environment

(iii) Cultural and religious domination

(iv) Early withdrawal of male children to enable them to apprentice! with artisans, mechanics, etc., to enable self-employment as: discrimination in the organised labour market is a huge perceived! concern.

(v) Even earlier withdrawal of female children to enable them to find* grooms more educated than themselves.

(vi) Unfulfilled demand for adequate number of Urdu medium schools or at least Urdu as a second language

(vii) Lack of Urdu language teachers

3.8.2.15 Some [interventions] for inclusion of Muslim children can be:

(i) Systematic and robust research on specific constraints faced by | Muslim children in different areas. Muslims, like SCs and STs are not a homogeneous community and exhibit wide differences in social and cultural practices in different states. A more thorough understanding of these issues will help formulate better interventions for inclusion of Muslim children into the education process.

(ii) Opening of schools in Muslim concentrated neighbourhoods. I

(iii) Providing 'girls only' schools in Muslim concentrated 1 neighbourhoods.

(iv) Providing Urdu medium schools in Muslim concentrated I neighbourhoods.

(v) Providing escort to Muslim girls, preferably through women I from the community for safe school going

(vi) Option of learning Urdu as a second language

(vii) Recruitment of more Urdu teachers, especially in Muslim concentrated areas;

(viii) Context specific and tailor made programmes for special training. 1

(ix) Sensitisation of all teachers to issues of cultural and religious diversity especially in relation to Muslims.

(x) Incorporation of practices, such as

(a) due representation of Muslim culture in curricular and pedagogical processes;

(b) encouraging discussion of Muslim cultural and religious practices in the school or classroom with the help of community members;

(c) celebration of Muslim festivals in the schools;

(d) sensitive handling of Muslim children during Ramzan when they may be fasting and

(e) adequate representation of Muslim parents in the SMC.

3.82.16 A large part of exclusion results from social distance caused by lack of knowledge and understanding about minority communities. Finding spaces to break these information barriers would go a long way in reducing the hostilities and insecurities that exist.

3.8.2.17 Children belonging to most under-privileged groups: SSA recognizes the hierarchies among the poor. There are groups which are not only the most, deprived and exploited, but also quite neglected. These groups deserve a special priority and focused action. SSA functionaries will have to carefully assess their needs and then plan context specific, innovative integrated interventions to make tangible progress in eliminating exclusion of children belonging to these groups. The following groups by far have been classified among the most disadvantaged groups:

(i) Urban deprived children

(ii) Child labour, particularly bonded child labour and domestic workers

(iii) Children in ecologically deprived area where they are required to fetch fuel, water, fodder and do other household chores

(iv) Children in very poor slum communities and uprooted urban habitations

(v) Children of families of scavengers and other such stigmatised professions

(vi) Children of itinerant or seasonal labour who have mobile and transient lifestyle like construction workers, road workers and workers on large construction sites

(vii) Children of landless agriculture labour

(viii) Nomadic communities and pastoralists

(ix) Forests dwellers and tribals in remote areas and children residing in remote desert hamlets

(x) Children in areas affected by civil strife

3.8.2.18 Children belonging to these groups and others who are in circumstances of extreme deprivation will need exceptional arrangements put in place in the perspective of children's rights. One among the most appropriate learning situations for them could be well established hostels and residential schools as well as transportation to and fro school besides other integrated and participatory interventions in collaboration with government agencies, NGOs and community.

3.8.2.19 A major issue concerning children in extremely difficult circumstances is sheer lack of their voice due to their alienation from community and little representation in agencies and forums like the SMC, PTA or VEC. SSA would make efforts to address this issue by advocacy for children's right to participation, by supporting the formation of support groups children's collectives, and, by encouraging efforts to accommodate their voices in planning, implementation and monitoring of interventions and strategies.

3.8.2.20 Situation analysis and interventions for some of the largest among the aforesaid groups of most underprivileged children i.e. children affected from migration, the urban deprived children, children in areas affected by civil strife, and, children termed as "excluded among the excluded", have been discussed in the following paragraphs.

3.8.2.21 Education of children affected by migration. - To address the issue of seasonal migration for varying periods for work in brick kilns, agriculture, sugarcane harvesting , construction, stone quarrying, salt pans etc. and its adverse effect on education of children who migrate with or without other members of the family, SSA encourages identification of districts, blocks and villages/cities or towns from where or to which there is a high incidence of migration. The RTE Act mandates bringing such children to regular schools both in districts where they stay or in districts to where they seasonally migrate. This would require innovative and effective strategies for special training to develop age appropriate competencies to facilitate children's enrolment and retention in age-appropriate classes, and to coordinate between the education providing agencies at both the locations mentioned above.

3.8.2.22 Special Training strategies for these children would require very meticulous planning. Some strategies can be developed on the following ideas: (a) seasonal hostels or residential camps to retain children in the sending villages/urban habitat during the period of migration, (b) transportation facility to and from the school in the vicinity of the worksite, and if it is not practical then work-site schools should be provided at the location where migrant families are engaged in work, (c) peripatetic educational volunteer/s who can move with the migrating families to take care of children's education during the period they are on move from school at one location to school at the other, and, (d) strategies for tracking of children through migration cards / other records to enable continuity in their education before, during and after the migration.

3.8.2.23 The receiving district /State where migrant families are located for some period shall have responsibility for ensuring that education to the children in age appropriate classes continues during the period of migration. It is expected that the AWP&Bs of these districts would include activities for education of such children, under Special Training component. The involvement of NGOs in the processes of mapping of migration and planning and implementation of interventions should be actively supported. Funds available under innovation can be used to support activities in an integrated strategy which are not supported under any other Norm of SSA.

3.8.2.24 Since migration takes place across districts and states, it would be necessary for sending and receiving districts and States to collaborate with each other to ensure continuity of education of such children and by other means such as providing appropriate textbooks, teachers, who can teach in the language in which children have been receiving education. For this purpose "task forces" could be set up to effect regular coordination between States/ districts.

3.8.2.25 The appraisal process of the AWP&B would scrutinise if areas of high incidence of migration have been identified and whether strategies for education of seasonally migrating children have been included in district and State plans.

3.8.2.26 Urban Deprived Children. - SSA has been focusing on the growing problem of schooling of disadvantaged children in urban areas. Successive JRMs have also dwelt on this component. Urban areas have special challenges like the education of street children, the education of children who are rag pickers, homeless children, 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, garages etc. Other city specific features are: very high cost of land, heterogeneous community and high opportunity cost etc.

3.8.2.27 Moreover, due to multiplicity of education providers and the agencies managing education, often a number of initiatives for UEE do not reach the urban area schools. Such a situation results in inadequacy or lack of quality improvement, consequently augmenting the number of urban deprived children. States have taken initiatives ranging from identification through surveys to provide basic amenities in the form of shelter homes, networking with departments, programmes and agencies like Welfare, JNNURM, Municipal corporations and NGOs etc. Some significant efforts have been made in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal, Lucknow, Patna and Jabalpur by municipal agencies and education departments in collaboration with NGOs.

3.8.2.28 However, despite these initiatives, there is a growing need for systemic and coordinated efforts to provide solutions on an institutional basis to urban issues. Thus to implement RTE in urban areas, SSA would adopt a more holistic and systems approach. This approach would necessitate coordination and convergence of interventions across Departments, local bodies, civil society organisations and the private sector. SSA would encourage a diversity of interventions planned and executed in integrated, collaborative and cohesive manner to tackle the unique challenges in urban areas. This would require 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.

3.8.2.29 Mapping and identification of out of school children in urban areas may require special efforts. Whole city planning for ensuring coverage of all eligible children in the drive for UEE would be rigorously adopted in SSA. The Municipal Corporation of larger cities will be considered as "district" for purposes of preparation of Elementary Education Plans.

The arrangements for decentralised 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 the source from which the State share would be provided. All SSA norms will apply to urban areas. Besides wards, urban slum clusters etc. have so far been units of planning in different cities. However, experience has shown that these units need to be more micro, so as to effectively address the idea behind habitation planning. More thinking and deliberation in this context would help in equitable planning for urban deprived children.

3.8.2.30 Children in areas affected by civil strife. - This is a new area of growing concern that is leading to the marginalisation of large number of children from educational processes. SSA recognizes the situation of these children as an alarming and significant problem and advocates for concrete steps to ameliorate the situation as early as possible. Some measures to insulate children and their education from the impact of such situation can be -

(i) prohibiting the use of school and other educational facilities for housing police, military or para-military forces.

(ii) making schools safe zones by providing adequate security and emotional support to enable children to come to school and continue with their education undisturbed.

(iii) If security cannot be provided then making alternative arrangements for all affected children to enable them to continue their education without a break. These arrangements could include providing residential schooling facilities or transportation to safer schools to children from the affected areas.

(iv) Organising special negotiations with leaders in these areas to ensure that schools are allowed to function uninterrupted.

3.8.2.31 Excluded among the excluded. - SSA acknowledges that by no means have the above categories exhausted the whole list of children excluded from the education process. While children with special needs are being dealt with in a separate section, children from migrant families with nomadic background, children working as domestic help, children in conflict with law, children in protective institutions, children affected by HIV/AIDS, children affected by natural disasters, to name a few, are some that have not been explicitly mentioned above or dealt with elsewhere. Special strategies to enable their participation will have to be developed. Support in developing these strategies, advocating for them and monitoring the continued participation of these children will be important elements of SSA's focus in the context of implementation of the RTE Act.

3.8.2.32 There are many active civil society groups that have gained substantial experience and knowledge of working with these children. Active involvement of these groups must be sought to enable their inclusion in the education process. A process of empanelling such groups for resource support would be a good starting point. However, more active engagement of the education department as well as NCPCR/SCPCR or REPA will be necessary to ensure that these children do not remain excluded.

3.9 Innovative Activities for Supplementing Mainstream Interventions to Promote Inclusion

3.9.1 SSA will develop context specific interventions, over and above the mainstreamed interventions, to address the problem of exclusion of girls and children belonging to marginalised communities and disadvantaged groups. This will include interventions for girls, early childhood care and education, children of SC, ST & Muslim communities, urban deprived children, and other groups of children in difficult circumstances, such as child laborers, children affected from migration, children without adult protection) children in conflict with law, etc. All successful interventions so far will serve as exemplars for pre paring such interventions. Need specific, innovative interventions will be articulated and formulated interms of their objectives, rationale, methodology, timeframe, expected outcomes and monitoring etc.

3.9.2 Innovation should be integrated with mainstream interventions in SSA and lead to tangible progress at least in one, if not more components of universal elementary education. SSA would provide to each district upto Rs. 50 lakh for innovative activities for equity to support mainstream SSA interventions to include children belonging to marginalised communities and disadvantaged groups. In the revised norms, the ceiling of Rs. 15 lakh per district for a maximum of four projects has been removed.

3.9.3 While SSA would encourage a wide variety of need based, local specific innovations, some examples of context specific innovative intervention for marginalised communities and disadvantaged groups can include:

(i) Awareness building on child rights and entitlements as per the RTE Act at the grassroot level.

(ii) Providing avenues and creating forums for encouraging the voice of children as key stakeholders in the education system.

(iii) Viable interventions to promote enrolment and retention.

(iv) Innovative strategies for special training to groups of most disadvantaged children.

(v) Forming support groups and safety nets for children without adult protection, homeless children, children working as domestic help, child beggars and other groups of children in extremely difficult circumstances

(vi) Strengthening of ECCE centres and support in capacity building of ECCE workers.

(vii) Community mobilisation and capacity building to facilitate preparation of school development plan.

(viii) Community based monitoring of teacher and student attendance, child participation and protection of their rights.

(ix) Building a congenial earning environment inside and outside the school.

3.10 SSA Interventions for Gender and Social Equity

3.10.1 In order to implement the gender and equity dimensions of the RTE Act, SSA will focus on the following issues:

3.10.2 Training and academic support

(i) Since the clear aim under the RTE Act is to have a gender sensitive, non-discriminatory classroom that is free of corporal punishment and mental harassment, there is a need to bring about substantial improvement in the curricular design and quality of teacher training. Gender and social inclusion concerns, as an integral part of pre- service, in-service and induction training by all providers, should form a core aspect of the training curriculum of DIETs and other Teacher Educational Institutions. Gender and social category equality, as also equality of all other deprived groups enumerated above should also be integral to the subject- specific content. In-service training programmes are in place in all States, but their quality remains a matter of concern. For this the modules developed by the states would be revised and redeveloped, if needed. Mechanisms to monitor the effectiveness of such training in leading to a more egalitarian classroom would need to be put in place.

(ii) In order to take what one has learnt during training into the classroom, there is need for on going support and monitoring. District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Block Resource Centres (BRC) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRC) are playing this role. However, the quality of support provided by these institutions needs to improve. Thus, capacity building of DIETs, BRCs and CRCs will be a prime focus in the context of gender and social equity as well. The support of experienced organisations would come in handy in this effort.

(iii) The provision of 50% female teachers has been effective in bringing large numbers of women into the education system. However, the problems faced by female teachers need to be given due recognition. Female teachers should be supported to over come security concerns or dealing with other forms of gender bias, including harassment. Forming forums or support groups of female teachers could also be of help in this regard.

3.10.3 Curriculum and classroom practices

(i) NCF 2005 provides a framework for revising the syllabi, textbooks, teacher- training and assessment, especially in relation to classroom experience of children belonging to SC, ST and minorities, girls in all social categories, and children with special needs. Efforts should be made by all states/UTs to undertake reform processes based on the NCF-2005.

(ii) It is equally important to see how inequalities operate at the level of everyday classroom practices (referred to as the 'hidden curriculum'). Some crucial aspects of the 'hidden curriculum' in schools would be : class room arrangement ( who sits where), differential task assignment (reinforcing that SC girls undertake the 'domestic' tasks (sweeping, cleaning), extra-curricular activities and types of play etc., subject choice (often girls or children from SC families are actively discouraged from taking Mathematics and Science subjects), language used by teachers and peers in the school environment etc . It is, therefore, important to make explicit different aspects of the 'hidden curriculum' and then undertake sensitisation measures to work on these issues. Sensitisation may not be enough and classroom practices would need to be monitored, and for this protocols and grievance redressal mechanisms should be established at the school and other levels. SSA acknowledges that bringing about change in these realms is extremely difficult as they are based on deeply entrenched beliefs and attitudes, and, therefore, need to be worked on a sustained basis.

(iii) With regard to Special Training to support age-appropriate enrolment, appropriate curriculum would have to be developed. As a majority of the children who would be availing this would be girls, and children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, the pedagogy used should be gender sensitive and flexible. The mainstreamed children would require continued support to keep pace with other children and to hold their own in the face of subtle discrimination.

(iv) SSA would facilitate non-government and other organisations and individuals with relevant experience to play the role of resource organisations/persons for mainstreaming gender issues and for developing appropriate curriculum, teaching learning materials, gender informed ped ago gies and teacher training for NPEGEL and KGBV and training of BRC, CRC etc. It is noteworthy that in order to put into practice the integrated quality improvement framework, where gender and equity form an integral part, strong resource support would be needed by the States and UTs.

3.11 Monitoring Gender and Social Inclusion Provisions

3.11.1 Issues of gender and social exclusion require careful monitoring. Monitoring and accountability mechanisms would be evolved and strengthened at different levels.

3.11.2 The RTE Act stipulates that 50% of the parents in the SMC will be women. However, for these women to function effectively and for them to be able to address and monitor gender issues and to include them in school development plans, capacity building inputs being provided to them should include a strong element of gender sensitization. Raising issues of discrimination in a community context where social, gender and caste hierarchies operate at many levels is a difficult task and persons entrusted to do so will have to be empowered and supported in this process. Similar training programmes can be thought of for PRIs. The support of NGOs and programmes like Mahila Samakhya that have demonstrated how this can be done should be actively sought.

3.11.3 Social audits should also report on the practices inside the school and classrooms, and detection of gender based discrimination should become an integral part of social audit processes in schools under different management system, including, private managements.

3.12 Education of Children with Special Needs

3.12.1 A group that forms a very important part of equity issues under SSA is Children with Special Needs (CWSN). The key thrust of SSA will be on providing inclusive education to all children with special needs in general schools. SSA ensures that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided quality inclusive education. It will also support a wide range of approaches, options and strategies for education of children with special needs. This includes special training, in the form of school readiness programmes for CWSN, education through special schools, home schooling, community based rehabilitation (CBR). The ultimate aim would be to mainstream all CWSN in neighbourhood schools.

3.12.2 For effective planning, management and implementation of the of the IE programme, resource groups should be constituted at State and district level. These groups should also have representation from civil societies. A technical person for IE should also be appointed at state/district level. Inclusive education for CWSN under SSA seeks to develop full potentiality of each child with a disability by emphasising on ending all forms of discrimination and promoting effective participation of all. Thus, inclusion of CWSN has to be seen in terms of physical access, social access and quality of access.

3.12.3 Physical Access: The following activities could be a part of physical access:

(i) Mapping of CWSN: Identification/ mapping children with special needs should become an integral part of the micro-planning and household surveys. 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. This must be accompanied by training of the surveyors, enumerators and other government functionaries at different levels.

(ii) Assessment of CWSN for mapping of needs: Assessment of each identified child should be carried out. A team should be constituted at the block/ cluster level to carry out this assessment. The assessment team will ascertain the extent and type of the disability, the developmental, level of the child, the nature of support services required, assertive devices required by the child and the most appropriate form of special training to be given to the child.

(iii) Educational Placement: Every child with special needs should be placed in the neighbourhood schools, with needed support services. Children with special needs, need to be facilitated to acquire certain skills that will enable them to access elementary education as envisaged in the Act. For instance, they may need mobility training, training in Braille, sign language, postural training, etc. Thus, school preparedness of children with special needs must be ensured by providing 'special training' as envisaged in the RTE Act. This training may be residential, non residential or even home based, as per their specific requirements. The existing non-formal and alternate schooling (including home based education) options for children with disabilities can be recasted as 'special training'. This means that (a) all children with special needs who are not enrolled in schools or have dropped out, will first be enrolled in a neighbourhood school (b) they will be entitled to 'special training' through regular teachers or teachers specifically appointed for. the purpose (c) and then mainstreamed in general schools along with their peers in the age-appropriate class.

(iv) Aids and appliances: All children requiring assertive 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, ALIMCO, voluntary organisations or NGOs. If aids and appliances cannot be obtained through convergence, then SSA funds could be used for this purpose too.

(v) Removal of architectural barriers: Architectural barriers in schools would have to be removed for easy access and to promote inclusion of CWSN. Efforts will be taken to provide all kinds of disabled-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. Schools must be designed using an inclusive lens to create barrier-free environments and accessible buildings must incorporate not only through ramps, but also through accessible classrooms, toilets, playgrounds, laboratories etc.

3.12.4 Quality of Access to CWSN: RTE stresses the importance of preparing and strengthening schools to address all kinds of diversities arising from inequalities of gender, caste, language, culture, religion or disabilities. Hence, to retain CWSN, schools would have to be prepared in terms of support services required by the child, availability of a trained/ sensitised teacher, support from a resource teacher, acceptance by peers and inclusive teaching practices. Elements like classroom space, building, furniture, equipments, seating arrangement, classroom organization, etc would have to be adapted to meet the varied and diverse educational needs of CWSN. For example, space norms would have to be altered for a child with a special need using an assistive device like wheel chair. The components under Quality would include the following:

(i) Support services: A continuum of core essential support services is required by CWSN. These services would be category specific and should be made available as per the needs of the child. These support services are essential for the access and retention of CWSN. This would include specific accommodations like availability and upgrading of aids and assistive devices according to individual needs, technological support in the form of augmentative and alternative communication tools, audiovisual material, communication board, computer access, universal design for school buildings, classrooms, transport/ escort facility, furniture and fixtures, resource room support, therapeutical support, text-books in accessible format, ICT support, vocational education and training, etc.

(ii) Teacher training: Intensive teacher training should be under taken to sensitise 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.

(iii) Resource support: For resource support to CWSN, especially trained special educators should be appointed, particularly for teaching special skills to children with special needs. The resource teacher maybe posted at the block or cluster level and can operate in an itinerant mode, covering a group of schools where children with special needs are enrolled. As far as possible one resource teacher from each category of disability should be appointed at the block level and multi-category training should be provided to all resource teachers to strengthen academic support to CWSN. In case, qualified special teachers as per prescribed qualifications are not available, teachers with short training courses recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) may be appointed with the condition that they will complete the full course with in three years of appointment or long term training of regular teachers should be undertaken. IE volunteers should be appointed on contractual basis at cluster/ gram panchayat level from amongst the parents/ family of CWSN and provided intensive training.

(iv) Curricular access: The curriculum must be inclusive as envisioned in NCF-2005. It should be ensured that the same curriculum be followed for children with and without special needs, but with minor adaptations like small changes in learning content, learning friendly environment, appropriate learning approach, adaptation in learning aids, flexibility in evaluation, etc. It would be important to provide text books and curriculum in accessible formats for CWSN.

(v) Individualized Educational Plan (IEP): An IEP should be prepared for every child with special needs in consultation with parents and experts. Its implementation should be monitored from time to time. The IEP should review the effectiveness of various strategies and support services used by children with special needs periodically, after developing indicators.

(vi) Building synergy with special schools: Special schools will have to become resource centres for inclusive education and provide support to IE. The nature of this resource support can cover aspects like teacher training, development of material and appropriate TLMs, providing support services to CWSN, etc. In some cases, special schools can also impart special training to CWSN for a specified period of time and then mainstream into regular schools.

(vii) 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.

3.12.5 Social Access to CWSN: Ensuring social access to CWSN is a greater challenge as compared to providing physical access as it requires an in-depth understanding of the various educational needs of CWSN and bringing about attitudinal changes at various levels and providing institutional support to sustain those attitudinal changes. A very important dimension of social access is discrimination. CWSN are subjected to many forms of discrimination. In this context teachers and peers have a very important role to play. Special emphasis must be given to education of girls with disabilities. Social access could include the following:

(i) Parental training and community mobilisation. - 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. School development plans must be developed keeping in mind the needs of CWSN.

(ii) Peer sensitisation. - Another group that plays a very crucial role in the context of CWSN is the peer group. Various programmes and curricular and co-curricular activities could be designed for peer sensitisation like inclusive sports, tournaments, cultural programmes, inclusive exposure visits, etc.

3.12.6 Expenditure upto Rs. 3000/- 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. On-going monitoring and evaluation should be carried out to refine the programme from time to time. For this, appropriate monitoring mechanisms and tools should be devised at every level and field tested at regular intervals.

3.13 Support for Gender and Social Inclusion

3.14 Summing Up

3.14.1 In SSA, equity means equal opportunity for all children to complete elementary education irrespective of their gender, religion, caste, socio-economic, cultural, or linguistic background and geographical location. It cuts across the components of access, enrolment, retention, participation and quality. Given that exclusion tends to take highly contextual forms - varying in scope, form and degree in different parts of the country (and sometimes within a state too) strategies to achieve equity and inclusion must come to grips with the local situation within which a particular form of inequity or exclusion is manifested. Hence, careful situation analysis and systematic documentation of forms of exclusion would be a necessary starting point.

3.14.2 While the RTE Act provides a legal entitlement for children belonging to disadvantaged groups and communities and weaker sections, their actual participation will require innovative and sustained measures integrated with mainstream interventions to ensure meaningful progress on equity. In order to pursue these measures, SSA would strive to find newer ways of breaking the barriers that prevent the participation of children from these backgrounds. Girls do not constitute a homogeneous category, therefore, the particular challenges of girls within these communities will be highlighted. Further reality of that children experience multiple form of disadvantage will in form planning and implementation.

3.14.3 Government schools cater to most of the disadvantaged groups and weaker sections and thus, it is important to work with government agencies on a multi-pronged strategy that includes advocacy, teacher training, curricular reform as well as community sensitisation.

3.14.4 SSA will continue to focus on addressing the needs of girls, however, the understanding will go beyond that to include a transformation of gender relations. Gender will be understood as a social construct that allocates distinct qualities, roles, norms and actions for boys/ men and girls/women. Thus the strategy for addressing gender concerns will also include boys. In the context of RTE the importance of the role of women in SMC's will be taken on board.

3.14.5 To the extent possible, mainstream SSA provisions should be applied in a cohesive manner to address equity issues in a holistic manner and on sustainable basis. Innovative and other supplementary provisions e.g. residential facility, transportation etc. should be seen as 'exception' measures in a context specific manner with well defined deliverables and timelines.

3.14.6 As issues of quality and equity are inextricably linked, efforts which are aimed at, one must also include the other. In the context of implementing RTE, quality concerns- curriculum, textbooks, teaching-learning materials, the use of space in the classroom, infrastructure, assessment and teacher trainings for example-will be highlighted. Further, each of these issues would need to be addressed by a gender perspective. SSA shall continue to envision and rigorously implement interventions focusing on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to address deep rooted practices of discrimination and prejudice.

3.14.7 Reaching out to communities from where the children come will be a key area of SSA interventions for equity and inclusion. This would! warrant community participation and ownership in interventions for equity I and inclusion. In addition, close involvement with other departments as well as with non-governmental and civil society organisations will also be I a crucial factor in ensuring universal participation of excluded children.

3.14.8 SSA will encourage participation of NGOs and civil society organisations by way of participatory need assessment, implementation and monitoring. In addition, these agencies are expected to play a proactive role in advocacy for children's rights with emphasis on right to education, and, report any violations.

3.14.9. In the case of children without adult protection, lack of community support and ownership has been a major challenge. To overcome this, children's own community should be encouraged to mobilise in the form of 'collectives' or 'support groups' and these collectives and support groups should be given enough space to voice their concerns and participate in planning, implementing and monitoring interventions for their education. SSA would encourage States/UTs to partner with NGOs that have relevant experience to facilitate these initiatives.

4. Elementary Education Of Equitable Quality. - 4.1 Vision of a Classroom

"My vision is of an active classroom, where students do not merely sit passively taking notes or listening to lectures. My vision is of a classroom with a buzz of activity. Children are working and involved, alone or in teams, some supported by peers and some supported by the teacher. The classroom is full of colour. It is open and inviting, the atmosphere is charged with energy and enthusiasm; children can be heard laughing, discussing, debating and arguing."

"My vision of a classroom is a place where there is no discrimination or bias on-grounds of gender, caste or community, where learning takes place, where self-confidence is built and exercised, and where personal interactions are nurtured and developed."

"My vision of a classroom is one where children do not hesitate, but do their work spontaneously and with confidence; where children are not afraid of making mistakes, and are not afraid to talk to the teacher. They move around freely, form groups or consult with peers. The teacher helps, observes, supports, and monitors. Parents and others are in school, talking with children and teachers. Children and the community have respect for the teacher. Community members share and discuss problems with the teacher, ask her to solve issues, and even admire her work."

Participants at an SSA Workshop

The following statements from the Vision document of a State Plan (Kerala DPEP) also gives an idea of what we need to transform in our school system to achieve 'quality', which is often spoken of but not necessarily understood in terms of actual processes.

We want to see our classrooms as learning centres where:

The child

•  gains confidence in facing problematic situations and undertakes tasks without any hesitation.

•  interacts freely, meaningfully and joyfully with her classmates, teachers and teaching learning materials.

•  interacts in groups and makes use of other resources for expanding her knowledge.

•  compares events, things, facts and findings and arrives at logical conclusions.

•  assesses her own progress in her work, identifies errors and rectifies them with the help off peers, teachers and parents.

The teacher

•  designs and implements activities taking into consideration the individual differences of each child.

•  formulates innovative techniques and practices for the class.

•  facilitates activities during classroom interactions as one among the group, without any inhibition.

•  sets tasks and gives instructions in accordance with the learning capability of children.

•  uses local resources for designing class activities, and reference materials for updating her knowledge.

•  elicits regular feedback and maintains recorded observations to improve her teaching.

•  takes up classroom problems as part of action research.

•  conducts academic discussions with her colleagues, takes part in collective planning with the School Resource Group, and inter acts with the community.

4.1.1 Right to Learn. - We have had a vision for quality education for all, and now for the first time in the history of Indian education we have the RTE with a separate Chapter (VI) to ensure that this vision is implemented. A right framework is a major shift which implies that the 'compulsion' is on the State to ensure learning of equitable quality for all children. In the earlier framework, the responsibility was often placed on the children themselves by labelling them as 'disinterested' or 'slow learners', or on parents who were assumed to be 'unaware and uneducated'. In fact, Section 8 (c) ensures that children belonging to weaker sections or disadvantaged groups are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education on any grounds.

4.1.2 Making this shift is a tremendous challenge for a system which rests on 'selection' from day one, even before a child can enter school, and judges a child to be 'slow' or a 'failure' without reminding itself that all children will learn and develop well in an environment that provides them quality education. Indeed, the RTE Act requires an emphasis on 'equitable' quality. Even our earlier policies have stressed that the quality of education depends on how far it ensures equity; so a system or school that selects children on the basis of their social advantage, actually compromises on equity and therefore on 'quality'. Our selective system claims to give preference to 'merit', and has segregated children into schools of differential quality on this basis. The so- called most 'able' are selected for highly resourced 'model' schools. However, the right framework reminds us that this notion of 'merit' decided by tests is actually connected to social advantage'. Children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds need greater attention and the best academic support from a system that promotes 'equitable quality', not differential quality, through which they are relegated to impoverished schools and thus, further disadvantaged. Research shows that the more competitive a test the more it actually selects social advantage, whereas collaborative and non-threatening assessment of children's progress leads to better learning of all. This is why the RTE Act (Section 13) has banned any kind of screening procedure for children and parents at the time of admission, has barred detention or expulsion of a child, and even disallowed the conduct of Board examinations till a child completes elementary schooling (class VIII). This is to give the child adequate time to develop her learning and understanding fully through an enabling educational environment, and through a system of continuous and comprehensive assessment which enhances learning.

4.1.3 Section 29 of the RTE Act is, therefore, crucial for the design of an enabling curriculum, by the designated academic authority. The curriculum here stands for all the components of schooling including in classroom processes, teacher development programmes, the syllabus and textbooks, assessment procedures, etc, and is meant to ensure:

(a) Conformity with Constitutional values;

(b) all round development of the child;

(c) building up the child's knowledge, potentiality and talent;

(d) development of physical and mental abilities to the fullest extent:

(e) learning through activities, discovery and exploration in a child friendly and child-centred manner;

(f) the child's mother tongue serving 'as far as practicable 'as the medium of instruction;

(g) making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety and helping the child to express views freely and

(h) Comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the child's understanding and knowledge and the ability to apply it.

4.1.4 In this way the principles of child centred education spelt out in the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986/92 and elaborated in the NCF - 2005 are now part of educational legislation. Some of these have been included in various guidelines prepared under Central and State level programmes launched since the formulation of the NPE, 1986/92, but now need to be strengthened to ensure implementation of the RTE with in the mandated time.

"A warm, welcoming and encouraging approach, in which all concerned share a solicitude for the needs of the child, is the best motivation for the child to attend school and learn..The policy of non-detention at the primary stage will be retained, making evaluation as disaggregated as feasible. Corporal punishment will be firmly excluded from the educational system and school timings as well as vacations adjusted to the convenience of children."

NPE, 1986/92

4.2 Quality Concerns in Elementary Education

4.2.1 Under SSA, most states have included a variety of interventions for quality improvement. These include pilot programmes within the Learning Enhancement Programme (LEP), teacher training, material development, specific subject-oriented programmes, etc. However, these interventions have sometimes taken the form of add-ons to the existing learning systems and practices, and have not adequately influenced the mainstream system, largely for the following reasons:

(i) The education system follows a disjointed approach to curriculum formulation, viewing it score components of curriculum , syllabus formulation, textbook development, teacher training, learner assessment, classroom processes and school management as discrete, fragmented or isolated interventions, rather than inter-connected and synthesised.

(ii) There is a tendency for the system, while formulating the curriculum, to ignore the ground realities of children, and to espouse 'deficit' theories of learning which assume that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are also lacking in ability or interest'. For example, the child may speak a different language at home, may be a first generation school-goer, may continue to help with domestic chores of the family, but the design and transaction of the curriculum fails to recognise this and build on it. It is common for the system to claim that children who come to school at an older age of say 8 or 9 years 'know nothing' - just because they do not know how to read and write. This again is a failure of the system to recognise that children are natural learners and that they bring with them sophisticated structures of learning and constructing knowledge. Any attempt to improve the quality of education will succeed only if it goes hand in hand with steps to promote equality and social justice. This can only be achieved when the knowledge and experience of children from all backgrounds and particularly those from disadvantaged groups are fore- fronted in school learning with primacy to their socio-cultural context.

(iii) The education system has adopted a subject based approach to the organisation of curriculum, focusing on areas which readily lend themselves to being formulated as 'subjects'. These subject boundaries have become rigid, are determined more by the disciplines they are associated with at higher stages of learning, and have little connection with how children actually develop their conceptual understanding. Moreover, areas which do not lend themselves to being organised in text books, for example visual and performing arts or work education, are relegated to 'extra' or 'co-curricular' activities. Any 'new' concern or problem, such as environmental awareness, human rights, value education or disaster management, is addressed piecemeal or as an add-on, without incorporating it cohesively in the curriculum. The NCF-2005 has called for breaking of these rigid compartments of conventional subjects to redefine learning areas in line with children's experiences and learning strategies.

(iv) There is an emphasis on reproduction of 'information' learnt by rote, rather than on 'constructing knowledge' from experience, which is the natural process for a child's development and learning.

Our schools usually 'transmit information' through lessons 'delivered', where children are expected to passively listen, write or respond to evaluation tasks on an individual basis. However, children construct knowledge through collaboration with others, not alone, and the curriculum design and classroom transaction must ensure this, through the choice of suitable themes which build on interaction, discussion and group work.

(v) Work on the core components of curriculum is not accompanied by improvement in the enabling components, which include teacher recruitment and deployment systems, re-orientation of educational administrators, BRC and CRC faculty.

4.3 Core Components of Quality Education

4.3.1 In dealing with quality concerns in elementary education, States would need to address the following core components of Quality Education:

4.3.2 Appropriate aims of education

"The aim of education is not the acquisition of information, although important, or acquisition of technical skills, though essential in modern society, but the development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens"

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

4.3.2.1 There is need for arriving at a relevant, balanced set of aims describing what learners should learn and why. NCF-2005 identifies educational aims as comprising:

•  A commitment to democracy and values of equality, justice, freedom, concern for others' well being , secularism, respect for human dignity and rights. Education should aim to build a commitment to these values, which are based on reason and understanding. The curriculum should provide adequate experience and space for dialogue and discourse in the school to build such a commitment in children.

•  A sensitivity to others' well-being and feelings, together with knowledge and understanding of the world should form the basis of a rational commitment to values.

•  A capacity to learn and willingness to unlearn and relearn as means of responding to new situations in a flexible and creative manner.

•  Appreciation of beauty and art forms as an integral part of human life.

4.3.2.2 The aims of education are expected to reflect the current needs and aspirations of a society as well as its lasting values. States would need to ensure that the aims of education are reflected in the curriculum, syllabus, textbooks and other learning material developed by them.

4.3.3. Key Role of Curriculum and Syllabus:

4.3.3.1 NCF-2005 lays down the broad principles for the Curriculum Framework, for the States to design the detailed Curriculum and Syllabus. The curriculum tells us what is worth teaching, how much should be taught and in what sequence, with what methods and materials, the linkages across different aspects of knowledge, how learning should be assessed, teachers prepared, and how schools monitored.

4.3.3.2 There has been a general tendency in the system to load the syllabus of early classes with topics which were earlier introduced in the secondary and higher secondary classes. This tendency has been particularly strong in mathematics and science, but it is also fairly perceptible in the social sciences. The report of the Yash Pal Committee, Learning without Burden (1993) had pointed out that the burden was from bombarding children with information that they could not understand at that age, resulting from an erroneous notion of 'knowledge'. NCF-2005 and the NCERT syllabi based on it have made an attempt to redress this problem to a certain extent, but the tendency persists and takes different forms. In j several states, syllabus revision at the primary stage has not been particularly radical, and a lot of age-inappropriate material continues to be taught during the primary classes. The fear that deletion of complex concepts in the early classes will result in 'dilution' of standards has prevented many States from taking necessary measures. In many schools, additional and non prescribed textbooks are used. Some well known private publishers have retained inappropriate content, which is not in the new syllabus, in their revised textbooks used by private schools under the claim that these offer more 'advanced' information. When teachers are faced with topics which children cannot negotiate at a particular age-level, they make children learn by rote and reproduce those answers in tests and examinations. When children fail to learn by rote, they are corporally punished or scolded. Poor marks or grades compel parents to hire a private tutor. RTE has outlawed private tuition as far as government teachers are concerned. Therefore, to develop meaningful curricula in keeping with the RTE Act, States need to be guided by the educational aims discussed above and the following fundamental questions:

•  What educational aims and purposes should schools seek to achieve?

•  Are our schools achieving these educational purposes?

•  If not, what alternative educational experiences can be provided that are likely to achieve these purposes?

4.3.3.3 To implement RTE, SSA will provide resource and logistic support to States to conduct workshops and hold consultations for developing new curriculum and syllabus.

4.3.4 Learning in age-appropriate classes. - The RTE Act (Section 4) stipulates age appropriate admission for out-of-school children, or those who may have dropped out, so that older children do not lose self esteem by being made to sit in a designated class of younger children. The RTE Act, thus, recognises that children do not enter as 'blank slates' but have rich knowledge from their life experiences which the school must acknowledge. The Act also provides that such children shall be entitled to free and compulsory education even after attaining the age of 14 years till they complete elementary education. Thus, every child has a right to an age-appropriate education, where she can learn at her own pace for achieving her full potential. It is in this context that the RTE Act provides for Special Training for out- of-school children, before being accommodated in an age-appropriate class. These provisions will result in a special training heterogeneous class, where children learn from each other and from a sensitive teacher, who engages them with respect and understanding, in meaningful learning activities. This special training 'bridge' class, having children of different ages, will need to sustain the motivation and self esteem of the older children by creatively using their knowledge to help the younger ones, and factor in the differential pace of learning by children from diverse backgrounds and experiences. More importantly, the RTE Act stipulates that all regular teachers of the school, who need to welcome these children in their class after their special training is over, will also need Special Training to understand how to accommodate them without discrimination which makes them feel 'left out 'or' handicapped' in any ways.

4.3.5 Subject balance and age-appropriate syllabi: The goals and aims of curricula must be reflected in the subjects taught in schools. By and large, there is consensus on the need for a child centred curricular policy, but in practice, there has been little change in the content and process of subjects of Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences over the last two decades. There is need for a consensus regarding how subjects are defined, how many should be taught at different stages of education, and the time allocated to each.

4.3.5.1 The current NCERT syllabus for Classes I to VIII, prepared based on the NCF-2005, is in consonance with the formulations of the RTE Act, and marks a major step forward toward an experiential syllabus design. It was based on the following principles which need to be included in all the State curricular interventions:

(i) Resonance of the values enshrined in the Constitution of India

(ii) Sensitivity to gender, caste and class parity, peace, health and needs of children with disabilities

(iii) Infusion of environment related and work based knowledge in all subjects and at all levels

(iv) Linkages between school knowledge in different subjects and children's everyday experiences

(v) Appropriateness of topics and themes for relevant stages of children's development and continuity from one level to the next

(vi) Inter-disciplinary and thematic linkages between topics listed for different school subjects, which fall under discrete disciplinary areas

(vii) Nurturing aesthetic sensibility and values by integrating the arts and India's heritage of crafts in every aspect of the curriculum

4.3.6 Learning material

4.3.6.1 Textbook Contents Reform. - States need to prepare textbooks based on the NCF-2005 principles. Textbook developers would need to design books such as they focus on the construction of knowledge by learners through the understanding of concepts, by active exploration, reflective thinking, and by providing interactive opportunities for children to conduct activities in groups, with continuous self and peer assessment. The textbooks should keep the principle of equity and inclusion at the forefront, proactively break extant stereotypes and reflect sensitivity to gender, caste and class parity, peace, health and needs of differently abled children. National agencies like NCERT would play a major role in enhancing the capacity of State agencies to undertake this task, and helps to sustain academic consultations for a critical review of curricular initiatives.

4.3.6.2 While undertaking revision of textbooks it will be important to rationalise the number of books both at the primary and upper primary levels such as there is no additional curriculum load on children. States that follow the seven-rather than eight-year elementary education cycle, tend to introduce subjects of history, geography, science and social studies in Class V, rather than Class VI. This adds to the curricular load on children. There is also need to integrate the various learning materials like text books, workbooks, worksheets, LEP materials etc. With the purpose of reducing an unnecessary additional burden on the teacher and child, as well as bringing in cohesiveness and reducing overlaps. The textbooks should be designed to nurture an aesthetic sensibility in children. There should be adequate focus on good quality printing and visual design of books along side improvement in content. Attention has to be paid for preparation of handbooks for teachers on new textbooks and the new approach to curriculum.

4.3.6.3 Textbook Production Reform. - The textbook production, encompassing the layout and design, text and cover, paper size and specifications, ink, printing and binding, etc., have significant implications for quality. These aspects have so far been relegated to the State Textbook Boards or SCERTs. SSA will provide support for ensuring reform in the textbook production process and national consultations to review these issues with professional artists and designers.

4.3.6.4 Libraries as learning sites. - The library will be an essential component of the school, providing not only resource for learning, but also for strengthening the idea of reading for pleasure, recreation and further deepening of knowledge and imagination. It will have newspapers, magazines, books as well as access to new information technology, including computers wherever possible. Training of teachers in library management and its usage will be integrated within the teacher training programmes. The libraries through SSA resources will be created strictly by the decentralised mechanisms, wherein the wisdom of teachers and the SMC for procuring books for their children is trusted.

Flabby textbooks, and the syllabi they cover, symbolise a systemic failure to address children in a child-centred manner. Those who write such encyclopaedic textbooks are guided by the popular belief that there has been an explosion of knowledge. Therefore, vast amounts of knowledge should be pushed down the throats of little children in order to catch up with other countries. Learning without Burden recommended a major change in the design of syllabi and textbooks, and also a change in the social ethos, which places stress on children to become aggressively competitive and exhibit precocity.

NCF, 2005

4.3.6.5 Pedagogy. - The NCF-2005 calls for a constructivist approach to teaching and learning, where learners make sense of the world around them. This is to be done through 'critical pedagogy' which foregrounds questions of inequality and justice and enables learners to undertake transformative action.

(a) Language. - The vision of SSA is to enable children to develop language from a social context and use it for thought and expression in their daily lives. Language teaching cannot be de-linked from the process of meaning - making and interpreting the implicit, where culture plays a significant role. Thus, language teaching and learning should span across the curriculum, in all subject areas and activities.

(b) Social Sciences. - Teaching of Social Sciences should help to develop an understanding of the socio-political structure of society, including issues of equity and discrimination. It should be able to situate these understandings in a historical context rather than presenting them in fragmented stand alone components. This should converge into every child being empowered to critically understand one 'sown positioning vis-a-vis others and developing an attitude to intervene and play a role in transforming the social order.

(c) Sciences. - Like the Social Sciences, Science should develop an attitude to question what is taken for granted. Teaching of Sciences should enable every child to understand Science in Everyday life and use activities of daily life to explain concepts in Science. It should enable children to question and pursue inquiry in a systematic manner, interpret and analyse. SSA will support schools for development and procurement of suitable kits and the establishment of a small laboratory using local resources

(d) Mathematics : Mathematics is a significant area in school education where logical reasoning and abstract thinking can be developed. However, Mathematics has been a source of fear among many school going children, despite the fact that they use Mathematics in daily life to a considerable extent without knowing that they are doing so. Teaching of Mathematics should incorporate knowledge from e very day mathematics and folk mathematics, from varied contexts of carpentry, agriculture, brick making, fishing, architecture, home management, etc. It should help children develop confidence, an ability to formulate problems they encounter in their lives and facilitate decision 'making. It is also critical to relate mathematics to the understanding of social reality, and to creatively integrate it with other subject areas.

(e) Arts and Craft education. - Art and craft education with special focus on local forms of arts must be incorporated in the teaching-learning process of all subject areas.

(f) Health and Physical Education. must be an integrated part of schooling at the elementary level. SSA will support health and physical education at the upper primary level.

(g) Work Education. - The vision of SSA is to enable each child to understand and gain from the knowledge and dignity of work as part of education in all subject areas, and not to separate 'manual' from 'mental' abilities.

4.3.6.6 Among all these areas, the cross-cutting characteristics will be that teaching will be based on and make use of local knowledge, experiences of children, be integrated across subject areas, informed by pedagogical research, and essentially participatory in nature.

4.3.6.7 Community knowledge. - Community is a rich local resource. Every family carries a wide range of knowledge and skills in the form of stories, songs, poems, riddles, dances, and occupational knowledge. This local knowledge can provide a rich learning resource for children. Schools must explore the potential of such learning resources. NCF-2005 recommends that schools need to relate to children's knowledge and experiences, and connect classroom knowledge with life outside the school. Schools need to be nurtured in this spirit, where the teachers work closely with the community as knowledge partners for effective school development and management.

4.3.7 Good use of time. - Research shows consistent positive correlations between learning time and student achievement. Studies also show that there is a significant gap between school calendar days, available school days, and the teachers' physical presence days in the school. This gap is accounted by teachers involvement in enrolment drives, admissions, surveys, distribution of textbooks, scholarships etc., as also personal leave, administrative duties, and official work of other departments, Much time allocated for instruction is also lost because of teacher and pupil absenteeism, shortage of classrooms, lack of learning material and weak discipline. The RTE Act mandates 200 school days at the primary level, comprising 800 effective schooling hours per year. At the upper primary level the RTE Act requires 220 school days comprising 1000 hours per year. The RTE Act also provides that teachers will not be assigned for non-academic work (barring decennial census, elections and disaster management). Further, it prohibits teachers from taking private tuition. The Act provides that teachers should put in 45 working hours per week. This would include time required for planning and preparation, TLM preparation, transacting the regular time table, assessment of children's work, providing academic and emotional support to children who need such support, interaction with the parents and community. This is expected to improve the teacher's physical presence in the classroom. However, mere teacher presence in the classroom will not transform student learning unless it is accompanied by sensitisation for greater learner oriented pedagogy and classroom organisation.

4.3.8 Pedagogic approaches for better learning. - Practitioners broadly agree that teacher-dominated pedagogy, placing children in a passive role, is undesirable, yet for most part, this style and method remains the norm. Innovations can be found across the country, which encourage child-centred, active pedagogy, cooperative learning and the development of critical thinking and problem- solving skills. Examples include the curriculum renewal approach of DPEP Kerala, the work of the Rishi Valley Trust, the 'Nali Kali' programme of Karnataka, the Activity Based Learning programme of Tamil Nadu, the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme by Eklavya in Madhya Pradesh, or the Integrated Kalikayatna Approach by Prajayatna in Karnataka.

4.3.9 Language policy : The choice of language(s) used in school is of utmost importance for the quality of teaching and learning. Evidences hows that starting instruction in the learner 's first language improves learning and cognitive development, and also ensures better learning of a second language if after a few years, a gradual transition is made to the second language. Language instruction is a policy choice affecting curriculum, content and pedagogy.

4.3.10 Assessment for Learning. - The goals of assessment are to give learners and teachers a sense of what is being learnt and how, in order to improve learning and teaching practices. It must show what progress the child has made with respect to her own performance over time, and is not meant to compare one child with another. Assessment must enhance the child's motivation, which is crucial for any learning. In fact, research now focuses on 'motivation' as the key to better learning rather than the notion of 'competence'. However, in our prevailing system, the examination is used to create competition for eliminating children who are found to be weak on the basis of their poor marks. Once declared 'fail', they either repeat grade or leave the school altogether. Compelling a child to repeat a class demotivates and discourages further, without necessarily giving any special resources to deal with the same syllabus requirements again. Parents of such children also tend to view them as being fit for failure, thereby reinforcing the perception which the school has already used for declaring the child 'fail' on the basis of a three-hour test. The prevailing examination system treats evaluation as a means of judging and passing a verdict. Such a practice is incompatible with the concept of child-centred education in a rights framework, and has been prohibited through the provision of 'No Detention' under the RTE Act.

4.3.10.1 RTE provides for Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation (CCE). CCE essentially means that assessment should be treated as an integral part of teaching and learning, through observations of children and maintaining records of their work done in a portfolio, rather than as a judgement. More importantly, efforts should be made to give self assessment exercises to learners, so that they can creatively articulate what. they can do and what they need support for, as is effectively done in progressive interventions even with young children. With the formulation of RTE, evaluation in any form, including examination, cannot be treated as a basis for stopping a child from progressing to the next Class.

4.4 Enabling Components of Quality Education

4.4.1 Pre-school or Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): The National Policy of Education (NPE) gives importance to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as a crucial input for 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. The potential of ECCE as an intervention for girls' education is widely recognised as an essential input in freeing girls from sibling care responsibilities, leading to their regular attendance in school and in providing school readiness skills to pre-school children.

4.4.1.1 Section 11 of the RTE Act, 2009 makes provision for being engaged with pre-school education. It states:

"With a view to prepare children above the age of three years for elementary education and to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years, the appropriate Government may make necessary arrangement for providing free pre-school education for such children".

4.4.1.2 This allows for the necessary space within the ambit of the RTE Act to enable a greater degree of involvement in the pre-school segment of education.

Continuous evaluation. - Modem educational theory has battled with such obsolete practices of examinations for a long time. Its message is simple and clear: namely that children's learning and development cannot be viewed in terms of a rigidly defined class structure, nor it can be fitted into an annual cycle of evaluation and promotion. The RTE Act represents the legal approval of modem educational thinking when the Act prohibits detention and requires that a child can join the school at any point in the year. The vision underlying the RTE Act is further clarified by the prohibition imposed on Board examination at the end of the elementary stage or before it. This vision is completely consistent with NCF which also recommends that there should be no Board examination at any point in elementary education. 'Continuous Evaluation' means that the teacher's work should be continuously guided by the child's response and participation in classroom activities. In other words, evaluation should be seen as a process whereby the teacher learns about the child in order to be able to teach better, and 'Continuous Evaluation' becomes a strategy of assessment which is a part and parcel of teaching itself.

Comprehensive evaluation. - The term 'Comprehensive' implies the capacity to view the child from a holistic perspective, rather than merely in terms of a learner of different school subjects. A comprehensive evaluation strategy would imply that aspects such as the child's health, self image, sensibilities, etc. are also perceived in the context of development and growth. Conventionally these aspects are either neglected in our education system or as we now see in private schools, dealt with by using an arbitrarily devised grading system which conveys the impression that the teacher has judged the child according to a norm. It is the duty of the teacher to make every possible effort, through interaction and engagement, to observe and understand the child's own nature. It is also important that the teacher does not judge the child's nature. Rather, what is required is that the teacher notices the inherent potential of the child as a learner in the context of his or her nature. Training for careful observation and record-keeping will have to be organised and executed in a careful and academically sound manner, to enable teachers to fulfil the expectation of the RTE Act. For guiding teachers to observe a child's behaviour and attitude, a new initiative will have to be taken for developing relevant material which can serve as a basis for training programmes.

Report of the Committee on Implementation of RTE and Consequent Revamp of SSA. - 4.4.1.3 SSA realises 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 ICDS, efforts to strengthen it in the area of pre-school education will be made.

4.4.1.4 In habitations not covered by Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and wherever the State Government is desirous of starting a pre-school education centre in the formal primary school, SSA support could be accessed through funds available under the head-innovative Activities. 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. Since ICDS is the main scheme for early childhood care and education, SSA will extend support only to enable the ICDS to enrich and sustain its pre- school and school preparedness component. When ICDS universalises its reach and coverage for pre-school education and school readiness, SSA support will cease in order to avoid any duplication.

4.4.1.5 SSA emphasises the importance of ECCE by strengthening convergence with the ICDS programme of Ministry of Women & Child Development to promote pre-school education. SSA would strive to maintain effective synergy with the ICDS through the following:

(i) Convergence instructions to be issued by State Education Departments in concurrence with ICDS Department.

(ii) Regular inter departmental meetings at the State, district and block level between SSA official and the ICDS programme.

(iii) Representative of ICDS programme on the State Level Executive Committee of SSA and District Implementation Committee.

(iv) Location of Anganwadi centres in or close proximity to primary school campus and synchronisation of the timings of the Anganwadi centres with the primary schools.

(v) Joint efforts for curriculum renewal of nursery teacher training and conduct of trainings of Anganwadi workers, primary teachers and health workers for a convergent understanding of links between learning and development in pre-school and primary school.

(vi) Use of infrastructure of DIETs, BRCs and CRCs for training of Anganwadi workers and other functionaries of ICDS.

(vii) Strengthening of training of Anganwadi workers in pre-school activities in both existing and new projects/Anganwadi centers.

(viii) Augmentation of pre-school kits/materials in Anganwadis, where such materials are required.

4.4.2. Teachers. - SSA visualises teacher as a capable facilitator, who motivates children to construct their own knowledge. The teacher should be aware about progressive pedagogy and must know the nature and experiences of children from various social and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, RTE requires that teachers should be committed to equity and social justice, aware about child entitlements and convinced that all children can learn well if provided education of equitable quality.

4.4.2.1 Teacher Recruitment, Placement and Training. - The RTE Act recognises the importance of providing adequate number of teachers and lays down that the prescribed Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) must be maintained for each school. It also recognises the need for subject specific teachers, head teacher and part time instructors for art, health and work education in upper primary schools. [In addition, it stipulates that no school shall have a teacher vacancy of more than 10%] SSA will support States in recruiting adequate number of teachers in the new schools sanctioned under the programme as well as additional teachers to meet the requirements of PTR at school level as per norms.

4.4.2.2 While calculating the requirement of additional teachers, the enrollment, population projections and State vacancies will be considered. The practice of recruiting at least 50% women teachers will continue. The sharing arrangement for teacher salary will be in accordance with the fund sharing pattern between Centre and States. SSA assistance will not be available for filling up State vacancies that have arisen on account of attrition.

4.4.3 Teacher Re-deployment : The RTE stipulation that PTR shall be maintained in respect of each school and that no school shall have teacher vacancies exceeding 10% warrants immediate intervention for re-deployment of surplus teachers to schools where the PTRs exceed the RTE stipulations. It is suggested that States undertake a rational re-deployment of teachers to ensure that the RTE stipulations are adhered to.

4.4.4 Teacher Qualifications. - The RTE Act, 2009 under Section 23(1) provides for minimum qualification of a teacher as laid down by academic authority, authorised by the central government by notification. Accordingly the Central Government has notified National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as the [academic authority] to lay down the minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher.

4.4.5 The following Teacher Qualifications laid down by the NCTE under section 23 of the RTE Act, would need to be followed in all future recruitments.

Redeployment of teachers. - There is clearly a need to evolve a more transparent system of transfers and re-deployment of teachers-a system which is both child centered and teacher friendly. The implementation of the computerised system for fresh postings, transfers and re-deployment would help the States in maintaining school-wise Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) as stipulated under RTE in a transparent manner. The TSG has developed computerised software for the use of States. The software uses the DISE database and can:

•  generate a list of under-served and over-served schools.

•  create a vacancy database.

•  generate a list of vacancies subject-wise.

•  be sensitive to the needs of physically handicapped teachers, women teachers and other categories as prioritised by the State.

•  correct existing imbalances in teacher deployment.

•  be customised to State needs.

4.4.6 Training of Untrained teachers. - The RTE Act attaches immense significance to the role of teachers in improving elementary education by making available professionally trained teachers for the school system. It provides a time frame of five years for ensuring that all teachers in [elementary schools are professionally trained]. Within this period, all teachers would need to acquire the academic and professional qualifications prescribed by the academic authority under the RTE Act. In this context, NCTE has provided that teachers appointed prior to the NCTE (Determination of Minimum Qualifications for Recruitment of Teachers in Schools) Regulations, 2001 dated 3 September 2001, need not acquire the revised teacher education qualifications. A teacher appointed on or after 3 September-2001 would require Senior Secondary and D. Ed (two years) or Senior Secondary and B.El.Ed (4 years) for teaching at the primary stage of education. For teaching at the upper primary stage a teacher would require (a) Senior Secondary and D.Ed (two years) or (b) Senior Secondary and B.El.Ed (4 years), (c) Graduation with B.Ed (one year). States may make an assessment of the teachers requiring academic and professional qualifications as per the 1. NCTE Teacher Qualifications:

(i) Classes TV

(a) Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known),

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 45% marks and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known), in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure), Regulations 2002,

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4-year Bachelor of Elementary Education (B. El. Ed.),

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 2-year Diploma in Education (Special Education), AND

(b) Pass in the Teacher [Eligibility Test (TET)], to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the Guidelines framed by the NCTE for the purpose.

(ii) Classes VI-VIII

(a) B.A/B.Sc and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known)

OR

B.A./B.Sc. with at least 50% marks and 1-year Bachelor in Education (B. Ed),

OR

B.A./B.Sc. with at least 45% marks and 1-year Bachelor in Education (B. Ed), in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations issued from time to time in this regard,

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4-year Bachelor in Elementary Education (B. El. Ed),

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4-year BA/B.Sc. Ed or B.A. Ed./B.Sc. Ed.,

OR

B.A./B.Sc. with at least 50% marks and 1 - year B.Ed. (Special Education), AND

(b) Pass in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the Guidelines framed by the NCTE for the purpose.

2 Diploma/Degree Course in Teacher Education. - A diploma/degree course in Teacher Education recognised by the NCTE only shall be considered. In case of Diploma in Education (Special Education) and B. Ed (Special Education) however, a course recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) only shall be considered.

3 Training. - A person with BA/B.Sc. with at least 50% marks and B. Ed qualification shall also be eligible for appointment for Classes I to V upto 1st January 2012, provided he undergoes, after appointment, an NCTE recognised 6-month special programme in Elementary Education. A person with D. Ed (Special Education) or B. Ed (Special Education) qualification shall undergo, after appointment, an NCTE recognised 6-month special programme in Elementary Education.

4 Teachers appointed before the date of this Notification. - The following categories of teachers appointed for Classes I to VIII prior to date of this Notification need not acquire the minimum qualifications specified above:

(a) A teacher appointed on or after the 3 September, 2001 i.e. the date on which the NCTE (Determination of Minimum Qualifications for Recruitment of Teachers in Schools) Regulations, 2001 (as amended from time to time) came into force, in accordance with that Regulation.

(b) Provided that a teacher of Classes I to V possessing B. Ed qualification, or a teacher possessing B. Ed (Special Education) or D. Ed (Special Education) qualification shall undergo an NCTE recognised 6-month special programme on elementary education.

(c) A teacher of Classes I to V with B. Ed qualification who has completed a 6-month Special Basic Teacher Course (Special BTC) approved by the NCTE;

(d) A teacher appointed before the 3 September, 2001, in accordance with the prevalent Recruitment Rules.

5 Teachers appointed after the date of this Notification in certain cases. - Where an appropriate Government, or local authority or a school has issued an advertisement to initiate the process of appointment of teachers prior to the date of this Notification, such appointments may be made in accordance with the NCTE (Determination of Minimum Qualifications for Recruitment of Teachers in Schools) Regulations, 2001 (as amended from time to time) above NCTE Regulation. SSA will support the training of untrained teachers to meet NCTE requirements as well as to develop group of pedagogically empowered teacher.

4.4.7 Pre-Service Training for Teachers. - Teacher preparation is very essential for quality improvement. It will be important to ensure that pre-service training is strengthened with the help of inspiring teacher trainers. Opportunities for the professional development of teachers have to be encouraged and all efforts to provide effective pre-service and in-service training and induction have to be made to attain the objectives of quality education. SSA will converge with the Teacher Education Scheme such that teacher preparation as per district attrition can be ensured. For ensuring academic and professional qualification within a stipulated time frame, SSA will provide resources and organise training of untrained teacher leading to prescribed certification.

Curricular Areas : Two-year D. Ed Programme Child Studies: Two Courses

1. Childhood and the Development of Children

2. Cognition Learning and the Sociocultural context

Educational Studies: Four Courses

3. Educational Society, Curriculum and Learners

4. Towards Understanding the Self

5. Teacher Identity and School Culture

6. School Culture, Leadership and Change

Contemporary Studies: Two Courses

7. Contemporary Indian Society

8. Diversity, Gender and Inclusive Education

Curriculum and Pedagogic Studies: Ten Courses

9. Proficiency in English

10. Pedagogy across the Curriculum

11. Understanding Language and Early Literacy

12. Mathematics Education for the Primary School Child

13. Pedagogy of Environmental Studies

14. Pedagogy of English Language

Optional Pedagogy Courses

1. Social Science Education

2. Language Education

3. Mathematics Education

4. Science Education

Practicum

1. Creative Drama , Fine Arts and Education

2. Children's Physical and Emotional Health, School Health and Education

3. Work and Education

School Internship

4.4.8 In-service Training for Teachers. - In addition, the programme will support annual in-service training of teachers, to enable them to continuously upgrade their knowledge and teaching skills. In-service teacher training should facilitate a shift in the understanding of teaching and learning, as stipulated by the RTE Act and NCF 2005:

4.4.8.1 The Teacher Training plan must be developed on the basis of the following processes:

•  Identification of teacher training needs

•  Annual review of teacher training module/package to avoid repetition Long term and sustainable plan for preparation of master trainer

•  Research and development for teacher training - development of teacher friendly reading materials about child development and children's knowledge, community knowledge and latest developments in pedagogy

4.4.8.2 The States will be encouraged to draw up a long term in-service teacher development plan, defining parameters such as the periodicity, content and methodology of the programmes. The training design will be such that it integrates content, pedagogy, material development and resources and phased to incorporate time in schools for their own reflective practice through projects. This will be followed through adequate follow up support at the block and cluster level. Arrangements for classroom observation after training programmes by the Resource Persons will be encouraged. The cluster level meetings will develop into a professional forum for teachers to reflect and plan together. This would bed one in a decentralised and consultative manner.

4.4.9 Academic Support and Supervision: District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Block Resource Centres (BRCs)/ Urban Resource Centres (URCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) have been conceptualised to function as academic resource centers. The faculty in DIETs provide pre-service and in- service training. The coordinators in BRCs and CRCs provide in-service training and on-site support to schools for improvement of school quality. It is highly desirable that positions in these institutions are created for a long term commitment and that the present practice of short-term deputations to teachers, especially in BRCs and CRCs, is discontinued.

4.4.9.1 The major role of DIETs should be to

(a) provide academic support and undertake capacity building of BRC/ CRCs.

(b) develop contextual training modules taking local knowledge and resources into consideration.

(c) develop exemplar material and activities for child-centred classroom transaction with due consideration to age, equity and socio-cultural diversity of children.

(d) strengthen community, school, teacher and CRC linkages.

(e) conduct periodical research on the impact of the teacher training and effectiveness in the classrooms to make amends accordingly.

4.4.9.2 The major role of BRCs should be to

(a) function as a repository of academic resources including ICT, science & math kits, teaching learning resource material in different curricular areas, including pre-school material, and material for children with special needs;

(b) maintain and constantly update databases of education experts from nearby Teacher Education institutions, NGOs, Colleges/ Universities who could participate in Resource Groups for different subject areas and themes;

(c) ensure regular school visits and on-site academic support to address pedagogic issues and other issues related to school development;

(d) organise in-service teacher training based on teacher needs as observed during school visits;

(e) participate in monthly teacher meetings organised at the cluster resource centres to discuss academic issues and to design strategies for better school performance;

(f) consult with school management committee, community members and local authority for formulating school development plans; and

(g) design a comprehensive quality improvement plan for the block/cluster and implement it in a time bound manner.

4.4.9.3 The major role of CRCs should be to

(a) function as academic resource centers with adequate resource/ reference materials for concerned teachers;

(b) undertake regular school visits and provide onsite academic support to teachers;

(c) organise monthly meetings to discuss academic issues and design strategies for better school performance.

(d) visit and hold meetings with members of the SMCs and other local bodies for school improvement, support SMC in school development plan

(e) ensure that the special training programmes are properly designed and implemented in the cluster for out-of-school children and securing their admission to age-appropriate classes.

4.4.9.4 The RTE Act mandates provision of training facilities as well as good quality education. The BRCs and CRCs are the most critical units for providing training and on-site support to schools and teachers. Given the significance of these structures, SSA will strengthen faculty and infrastructure support to BRC/CRC.

4.4.9.5 To improve the effectiveness of the block/cluster coordinators, there will be a focus on improved selection criteria, which takes into consideration experience, qualifications and aptitude for training and research. There will also be focus on constant skill enhancement through appropriate training programmes that will help Resource Persons grow into teacher mentors-cum-educators. Functional linkages of BRCs and CRCs with DIETs and district level resource groups will be strengthened.

4.4.10 Training for administrative and academic support

4.4.10.1 For Head Teachers. - School is the place where the provisions of the RTE Act have to unfold and children receive their entitlements. RTE demands new skills and a broadened perspective among Head Teachers for looking at school functioning from the point of view of children's rights which need to be protected every day in the school. Questions that need to be addressed on a daily basis include:

•  Does the school function regularly for the specified number of hours and the number of days in the year?

•  Do teachers attend regularly?

•  Are children taught courses as per the prescribed curriculum?

•  Are they assessed continuously? Are teachers maintaining a record of their work and progress, which is regularly shared with them and their parents?

•  Are children treated in a manner that corresponds to the requirements of the Act such as no physical punishment, trauma or mental harassment, equal treatment to all children without any discrimination?

•  Is the school inclusive for differently abled children and do children needing special help receive appropriate support?

4.4.10.1.1 As an educational professional, the Head Teacher needs training for providing academic support to teachers in the school. The Head Teacher must also be trained in leadership so that she/he can play be a democratic and natural leader, not because of the position she/he holds, but because of her/ his ability to administer a school where there is no discrimination or bias on grounds of gender, caste or community. The Head Teacher needs training in the basics of finance in order to maintain accounts relating to (a) school grants, (b) teacher grants, (c) maintenance grants, (d) construction works, (e) mid-day meals, etc. She/he needs training in the administration of departmental programmes and schemes. A key training input should be in human relationships - school and community, school and educational administrators, teachers and students, teachers and parents, teachers and teachers.

4.4.10.1.2 Training for Head Teachers would include the following components. - (a) orientation to the various sections of the RTE Act which directly relate to school functioning; (b) orientation on emotional aspects to ensure that children, who have been mainstreamed into age-appropriate classes are supported; (c) keeping up-to-date records of teacher and student participation in various activities; (d) dealing with children with special needs; and (e) academic and human resource management.

4.4.10.2 For Educational Administrators: The RTE Act places new responsibilities on Educational Administrators to ensure that the provisions of the Act are implemented. A key reform in training would be to change the in spectorial role of the educational administrator to that of a mentor. Educational Administrators need training for (a) ensuring that financial, social, cultural, linguistic and procedural barriers do not come in the way of children accessing and completing elementary education, (b) undertaking periodic supervision of schools to observe the infrastructure, facilities, use of teaching learning material, and other administrative aspects, (c) operationalising the school syllabi, teaching learning process and learner assessment system, (d) developing a proper system of academic and curricular support to serve the purpose of continuing professional upgradation of teachers.

4.4.10:2.1 Educational Administrators need training on managing (a) the human element, (b) the curricular aspects and (c) material resources. In the human element the Educational Administrators need to have the ability to deal with complex issues such as teacher recruitment and rationale deployment, teacher and student absenteeism, teacher motivation and discipline, and teacher skill enhancement. Curricular aspects of training for Educational Administrators would entail an understanding of the child centred curriculum enunciated in section 29 of the RTE Act. The administration and management of material resources and the efficient administration of government schemes requires organisational and managerial skills would include training for management of mid-day meal, textbook and uniform distribution, ensuring interface of the schools with the local community and upgrading their knowledge on government schemes and programmes.

4.4.10.3 Academic Authorities : will be responsible to specify and develop curriculum, syllabus and textbooks in line with the NCF-2005 and taking all the considerations of RTE implications promoting a child centred critical pedagogy and active classroom processes. The academic authority will evolve a good pool of resource persons involving academics, members from civil society, NGOs, artisans, professionals from art and culture, media, etc.

4.4.10.4 For Community Members: The RTE Act attaches immense importance to the School Management Committees. The SMCs will provide the support system to ensure that provisions pertaining to duties of the teacher as well as prohibition of private tuition are fulfilled. It will also monitor that teachers are not burdened with non academic duties and that steps for adherence to the schedule of the RTE Act are taken. While making school development plan, apart from requirement for infrastructure needs, adequate attention has to be paid to quality issues including teacher training, availability of child entitlements, teaching learning materials in schools, pupil assessment methods and preparation of pupil cumulative record. The SMC can also act as a bridge for community involvement in sharing knowledge with school children. This shift in focus should also result in a greater involvement of the community with the school, for sharing of local knowledge and traditional wisdom. Integrating work with education across the curriculum would require the attachment of children with professionals, farmers, and artisans. In addition, there should be greater involvement with various extension workers i.e. agriculture, health, anganwadi workers for more experiential learning. In this effort of monitoring quality, the role of community assumes paramount significance. The community leaders and groups need to be sensitised on issues related to monitoring of children's progress and other quality related school activities.

4.4.11 Research. - Research plays an important role in assessing and monitoring the progress in elementary education. Research and evaluation studies are undertaken at national, state, district level and may also be conducted at the block, cluster and school level in the form of Action Research for providing greater insight into issues and problems faced in implementation of the various components of SSA at different levels. The findings of research studies would help in more systematic planning the inputs and strategies for SSA. Apart from evaluation of the inputs and how the programme is being implemented, research would also include evaluation of outcomes and impact of interventions provided for specific purposes under SSA and for RTE.

4.4.11.1 States should give priority to developing and implementing, research projects concerned with quality related issues, such as estimating out-of-school children; status and effectiveness of Special training centres; Completion rate/Dropout rate and Transition Rate; assessing state's curriculum in the light of NCF-2005; students' learning outcomes; student's and teachers' attendance rates: effectiveness of teacher training: efficacy of text books and other TLM quality of academic supervision provided by BRCs/CRCs/ DIETs; discriminatory practices in schools, teaching-learning in class rooms ; implementation of CCE in schools; role of SMCs in school management, etc. The priority areas of research at the state level and district level should be decided by the Resource Groups or Research Advisory Committees at those levels.

4.4.11.2 At the national level, apart from TSG, NCERT, NUEPA, IGNOU and other Universities, research institutions and NGOs should be involved in research projects concerned with SSA and RTE. In the states, involvement of SCERT, SIEMAT and DIETs, universities and State Research institutions should be encouraged in conducting research on issues of relevance to SSA and RTE. It is important that the findings of research are widely disseminated and used in planning and improvement of various interventions.

4.4.12 Under the Innovation, Head SSA provides support for Computer Aided Learning (CAL) facilities upto ' 50 lakhs per district per year. The focus of CAL will be to maximise coverage in Upper Primary Schools with special emphasis on Science and Mathematics. Hardware, software, training, maintenance and resource support if required, could inter alia be included in this component.

4.5 Other Essential Components of Quality Education

4.5.1 The RTE Act enumerates some specific ways in which the school environment can be made stress free for the child. These include:

4.5.2 No corporal punishment or mental harassment. - The Act bans physical punishment and mental harassment. There is a mistaken notion that 'discipline' of children comes from punishment and fear. However, educationists the world-over are clear that what matters to creating a mature citizen is the provision of a democratic 'learning environment' in the form a nurturing school, and not a 'correctional' centre. Physical punishment and mental trauma are counter- productive, and may cause a child to become even more defiant and rebellious than before. Children's bodies are tender and vulnerable. There are many examples of grievous injury to children on account of physical punishment. Even a minor punishment can result in an injury - both physical and emotional - a slap may result in a child going deaf and being humiliated. Any kind of physical punishment and mental trauma is potentially unsafe and injurious to health, and violative of the child's rights.

4.5.3 No detention. - The 'no detention policy' does not imply abandoning procedures that assess children's learning; in fact it implies putting in place a continuous and comprehensive procedure of child assessment and records, The RTE Act calls for setting up of such continuous and comprehensive system of Constitution of India evaluation that releases the child from the fear and trauma of failure, but enables the teacher to pay individual attention to children's learning and performance.

4.5.4 No expulsion. - The implications of 'expulsion' are that the education system has refused to serve the child. The notion of expulsion is not compatible with the concept of 'right'. No civilised country expels children from elementary schools, for any reason; there are no 'valid' grounds for doing so. If a child does not respond to the existing system and resort s to 'deviant 'activities, then the education system must address the child differently - through counselling or by providing different curricular and co-curricular experiences and activities, which enable the child to develop self awareness, address deep rooted fears or problems, and consequently help change patterns of behaviour.

Constitution of India

Art 39 (e): The state shall ensure that the tender age of children are not abused

Art 39 (f): The state shall ensure that children are given opportunities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.

There is explicit use of the word 'dignity' in Article 39(f); RTE acknowledges that dignity and punishment cannot co-exist.

United Nations Convention on Child Rights (UNCRC).

Article 19: State parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child form all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parents, legal guardians or any other person who has the care of the child.

4.6 Summing Up

4.6.1 It is clear that school quality enhancement requires systemic reform in elementary education for translating this vision of quality into the lived experience of all children in elementary schools. States/UTs are .required to frame appropriate rules under the RTE Act. These may be followed up with appropriate executive instructions and training to all education administrators and teachers at different levels. Many of the interventions, such as issuing orders for anytime enrolment throughout the academic year; banning physical punishment; no denial of admission on grounds of screening, or for want of transfer or birth certificates etc., have no financial implications under SSA or the State sector programmes. However, they are an important part of the systemic reforms mandated under the SSA programme to implement the RTE Act, and must be included in the overall school quality improvement plan under the programme.

5. Participation And Role Of Community And Civil Society.. - 5.1 Background

5.1.1 It would be impossible for RTE as well as SSA to succeed without people's support and ownership. The RTE mandate for age-appropriate admission of every out-of-school child, special training for each child to enable her to cope in school, promoting child-friendly child centered and activity' based learning processes, which is free of anxiety, trauma and fear sets the agenda for proactive community participation.

5.1.2 Community participation would be a central and overarching factor in planning, implementation and monitoring interventions for universal elementary education. SSA would work towards enhancing participation of the community, parents, teachers and children by awareness generation and interventions for community mobilisation. To facilitate such a massive mobilisation and solicit active participation, State and District SSA Offices would need to join hands with experienced and active civil society organisations.

5.2 Role of Civil Society Organisations and the Nature of their Engagement

5.2.1 The importance of the role of civil society organisations with relevant and demonstrated experience at different levels and locations, in translating RTE from a legal framework on paper to a vibrant movement on the ground, cannot be overstated. This becomes even more critical in the face of the scale of the task and the myriad challenges that are envisaged in ensuring the proper implementation of the Act. The civil society, therefore, need to be viewed as partners in implementation of the RTE Act. NGOs have always been considered as the principal agency of the civil society. In recent years the number of NGOs has increased phenomenally. For selection of partner NGOs it would be necessary to make a cautious selection. But once it is decided to establish a relationship) of partnership with an NGO and the area of that NGO's engagement is decided, necessary support should be provided to the selected NGO. Ordinarily, there need be no hesitation in transferring to the NGO the patterned budget for the selected area of implementation.

5.2.2 Civil society organisations have had a long history of involvement in the education sector to which they have significantly contributed in variety of ways. There are also several examples of effective partnership and collaboration between government and civil society. However, the relationship between civil society and the State is complex and partnerships have not always been a smooth sailing. Over the years, the space for NGO/civil society intervention has tended to get limited taking on implementation of particular projects. Partnerships have tended to be short-term and ad hoc rather than holistic and ongoing engagement.

5.2.3 For SSA to be effectively implemented, the space for genuine long-term partnerships based on mutual respect must be evolved. Critical to ensuring this would be to legitimise and institutionalise the different roles of NGOs within the institutional and other mechanisms that will be put in place. In other words, the engagement of civil society needs to be systemic and not project driven. Partnerships should be comprehensive with scop>e for NGOs to take overall responsibility for ensuring implementation of the Act.

5.2.4 SSA should review the nature of its engagement with NGOs and initiate a process of dialogue to open up new areas of collaboration in keeping with the parameters of the Act. Areas where partnerships have worked well should be continued; taking into cognizance the new realities thrown up by the Act, fresh areas of partnership explored. An example, of the former wouH be the running of bridge courses, which in many states have been considered anare a of successful partnership. The central scheme for assistance to voluntary organizations us attached1#. It would be advisable for State Governments to develop similar schemes.

# The scheme for assistance for experimental ami innovative component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan/RTE at the elementary level is attached at Annexure 14.

5.2.5 NGOs would also have to re-think their roles in the light of RTE. NGO interventions like the running of alternative schools, programmes for out-of school children, NFE centres would need to be recast. For instance, the Act specifies that the responsibility of providing special trainings (for age-appropriate enrolment) would rest with the school/local authorities. NGOs, CBOs, etc working in this area would now necessarily have to work in close collaboration with these institutions and within the framework of RTE. Trustworthy NGOs exist in most parts of the country. There are some, who have built a reputation. Those NGOs are likely to be natural partners, after their credentials are verified. Several NGOs are not well-known but are good and dependable and have considerable capacity, which should be harnessed. For effective implementation of RTE, efforts should be made to bring in grass roots organisations with proven experience to implement and monitor implementation of the Act. Over the last couple of decades we have witnessed a process of grassroots institution building. Mahila Samoohs, Sangathans, SHGs, Mahila Samakhya federations, youth groups, groups working for people's rights, etc. have been formed and some of these have developed substantial capacities and have empowered members. It would be useful to mobilise the support of these grassroots formations.

5.2.6 The role of the local authority has been clearly outlined in the Act. Expectations from the local authorities are considerable and challenging. Long-term partnerships between NGOs and Panchayati Raj (PRIs) would therefore be required to enable local authorities to meet these challenges. Organisations working with PRIs since the passing of the 73 and 74 Amendments, who may not necessarily have experience of working in education should also be brought in. 5.2.7 While advocating for the inclusion of a broad spectrum of organisations care must be taken to ensure that organisations that uphold the spirit of the Act, adhere to constitutional values and are committed to a relation of partnership with government are enabled to get involved. Thus, proper screening criteria and processes must be put in place.

5.3 Potential Areas of Partnership

5.3.1 While it is agreed that the role of civil society needs to be holistic, there are some areas, where NGOs and other civil society organisations could play a substantial role. These are:

5.3.2 Mobilisation and awareness building. - Often one notices widespread cynicism towards a new government initiative. People can be heard voicing a feeling that the RTE Act would have the same fate as several other laws enacted to bring about reform. Therefore, it is a matter of greatest importance that conviction is built among media, intelligentsia and the masses that not only is government totally committed to ensure implementation of this law, teachers and general public would not any more tolerate the status quo in education and that through collective efforts we shall bring about a real change. A massive mobilisation would be required to build awareness around the Act and to enable the community to monitor and demand accountability. Building a vibrant campaign to generate a momentum and a broad-based awareness of the provisions of the Act would be a crucial contribution of civil society organisations. Mobilisation and awareness building cannot be considered as a one-time activity and will have to be sustained. Thus civil society organisations would have to take this up as a challenge. Lessons from the nation-wide upsurge created during the National Literacy Mission (NLM) can also be drawn upon to develop the campaign.

5.3.3 Social mapping. - The most important resource of any community is its local wisdom and knowledge. Social mapping enables the community to harness their local wisdom and knowledge to identify their educational needs and problems, based on which they can formulate and implement School Development Plan and also monitor and evaluate the whole process. In this regard the role of the NGO would, mainly, be to undertake thorough survey to ensure that no families get left out and necessary details regarding the school are carefully listed.

5.3.4 Resource support. - Effective implementation of the Act will require expertise at different levels from the local to the national and from a range of organisations, depending on their areas of expertise. Areas where resource support and capacity building can be provided by civil society organisations would include:

•  complementing government's capacity for teacher training;

•  curriculum and pedagogy as mentioned

•  in the following sub-paragraph; and

•  continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation being a crucial aspect of the new approach to educational reform, and keeping in view the fact that there is insufficient experience in this area, help could be taken from NGOs with special capability.

5.3.5 Development of curriculum and pedagogy

Some civil society organisations have developed an expertise after years of innovation, experimentation and validation at the ground level, in several core areas outlined in the Act. Involvement of groups and organisations with such experience should be facilitated to provide inputs in the following areas:

(i) Curriculum development, particularly of bridge courses, which would be important in implementing the provision of age appropriate enrolment,

(ii) Development of teacher training strategies

(iii) Design of evaluation mechanisms (CCE)

(iv) Research

5.3.6 Ensuring equity, quality and non-discrimination: The Act outlines critical issues related to quality, equity and the need to ensure that the educational space is discrimination free. Thus, NGOs and civil society organisations could have a crucial role to play not just in reporting violations but also building a perspective on gender and social inclusion Issues and ensuring that these become integral cross-cutting concerns informing different aspects - for example, training, curriculum and classroom transactions, performance of SMCs, etc.

5.3.7 Training of School Management Committees: This would be an important area of NGO involvement. The Act clearly outlines the functions to be performed by SMCs. Some of these functions, for example, preparation of school development plans, would require significant investments in capacity building. Past experience has shown that mere setting up of committees does not ensure their meaningful participation in programmes. Moreover/although provision is made in membership of these committees for inclusion of women and persons from disadvantaged communities, in reality, they are excluded from decision-making processes. Therefore, the role of civil society organisations would be critical in making the SMCs an effective democratic space. It needs to be highlighted that the nature of such interventions cannot be one- time training but must necessarily be a long-term involvement.

5.3.8 Training of personnel of Panchayati Raj Institutions

PRIs will have to play a crucial role in provision of facilities mentioned in the Act. They are also the first level to be addressed by persons aggrieved about denial of right to education as written in the Act. Therefore, training of PRI personnel will be a challenging task. A large number of NGOs and CBOs have experience in the training of PRI personnel. District authorities will have to prepare a comprehensive plan for training and re- training of these personnel. It would be advisable to assign appropriate responsibility to NGOs /CBOs wherever suitable ones are available.

5.3.9 Conduct of 'Special Training'

It is laid down in the Act that all out-of-school children should be admitted in an age-appropriate class and provided 'special training' to enable them to keep pace with other students. Past experience shows that 'special training' can prepare the students much better if it is residential. Wherever possible, it would be advisable to incorporate a component of life-skills training in this residential education programme. From the point of view of future development of children, this 'special training' will be of immense importance and should be undertaken after sufficient preparation. Generally speaking, it would be necessary to develop appropriate curriculum and instructional methods for this purpose. Considering the complexities and enormity of this work all agencies which have the willingness and the ability to undertake this work must be encouraged to do so. Several NGOs have experience and /or ability to work in this area and they would be the natural partners in implementation of this aspect of the RTE Act.

5.3.10 Area based responsibility

It is essential that accomplish ability of the provisions of RTE Act and the Rules framed thereunder is demonstrated in practically all parts of the country in the shortest possible time. State Governments and local authorities would, no doubt, attempt to make a concerted effort in selected areas - that would serve as pilots to motivate and impel others. NGOs can serve as an effective agency to initiate this step and to sustain it till full impact of the Act is realised. This could be in a block, a panchayat area or other defined geographical area carved out in an ad-hoc manner. In this area a partnership-based action would be evolved.

(i) The NGO builds awareness among teachers and parents - the former being motivated to function as envisaged in the Act and the latter insisting that the rights of their children are honoured by all concerned.

(ii) Responsibility for infrastructure development and teacher provision remaining with relevant government agency/local authority, but NGOs taking responsibility for all other components, such as surveying the existing infrastructure, teacher performance, ensuring enrolment of all children; constitution, training and functioning of SMCs; prevention of harassment of teachers and enabling them to properly discharge their duties; insistence on gender sensitivity in all activities and transactions in schools; providing assistance in recognising infringement of RTE and to lodge grievances and pursue them till they are redressed.

(iii) An NGO being provided necessary wherewithal to take responsibility for full implementation of RTE Act. In this case (as was done in the Lok Jumbish Project in Rajasthan) all resources required to meet the infrastructural needs, funds for appointment of teachers (to be done in the same manner as in government) and for conduct of good quality education are provided to the NGO on the basis of a proper project proposal. In this case a joint committee of representatives of the NGO, government, PRIs, teachers' unions, parents, etc. would guide and improvise the implementation.

5.3.11 Specialised support. - Some NGOs have expertise in specific areas, which should be drawn upon. Some of these are

(i) children with special needs.

(ii) involvement in design of infrastructure, including school buildings.

(iii) publication of books and journals to enhance reading ability.

(iv) gender training.

5.3.12 Monitoring and watchdog role:

A crucial area for civil society intervention would be in playing a watchdog role to ensure that the rights of children are protected. The NCPCR and SCPCR have been entrusted with this role but given the scale of coverage, human resource availability, and enormity of the task, NCPCR/SCPCRs will be enabled to fulfill their role only with active involvement of civil society organisations, particularly those working at the grassroot level. In order to ensure that this task is undertaken effectively the j role of civil society needs to institutionally and systemically envisioned. 1 Some of the possibilities could include

(i) providing accreditation to civil society organisations that would work as a part of the systematic mechanism for grievance | redressal.

(ii) NCPCR and SCPCRs would be well advised to establish an effective network of civil society organisations and enable such organisations to undertake social audits, public hearings, etc.

(iii) civil society should be included in any institutional mechanism being planned at the state as well as the district levels. The implementation of NREG Act provides a good precedent where state level commissioners have been appointed to monitor the implementation of that Act. In several instances, commissioners are active civil society members who have undertaken several initiatives to ensure that awareness is built around the Act and to articulate grievances.

(iv) the Act envisages the establishment of National and State Advisory Committees where the active participation of civil society representatives can be brought in.

5.3.13 Social Audit. - Civil society organisations can facilitate a process of social audit with community involvement. Social audit would facilitate the checking, monitoring and verification of the SSA /RTE Act implementation at the village level. Transparency, participation and accountability will be maintained through the social audit in programme implementation. Social audit can be done at any point of time during the planning, preparation and implementation of SSA programme at village level. To conduct social audits, an enormous amount of community mobilisation is necessary. Social audit is carried out by the community and the entire Gram Sabha with the help of stakeholders like local authority members of SMC/VEC, PTA, Self Help Groups (SHGs), youth clubs, Mahila Samooh and representatives of disadvantaged groups, etc.

5.4 Role of Parents

5.4.1 Parents would need to play a more active role in school in monitoring the implementation of RTE stipulations and facilitating children to learn at their own pace without fear, anxiety and stress. Parents have a crucial role in understanding and appreciating the individual potential of every' child, and her/his own pace of learning. Parents need to be involved in discussion to understand the significance of interactive learning free from stress and anxiety, tests and exams being replaced by a system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation, the fact that there should be no corporal punishment, no tuition, and no detention. Once they are convinced of this, it would he easier to solicit their participation in the school development and management processes. Another challenging aspect before the community now is to identify out-of-school children in the locality and bring them to age appropriate class in a school. Efforts made in SSA for community participation will thus need to focus on awareness generation and participation of parents as an important partner.

5.5 Role of Children

5.5.1 Children's participation in universalising equitable access, retention and quality is an important and desirable catalyst for realization of their right to education. Without children's participation in the schooling process, schools cannot be made child-friendly and child- centered.

Concepts like Children's Cabinet, Children's Parliament, Meena Manch, etc.

need to be encouraged in every school, thus ensuring children's active participation in school management and development. SSA would encourage formation of children's collectives and support groups for children without adult protection to address deficit of community support and ownership.

5.6 Role of Teachers

5.6.1 Issues relating to teachers have been discussed in the Chapter 4 (Quality). However, in the context of community participation it is important to underline the significance of the teacher as a key partner in planning and implementing community participation strategies. In fact participation for RTE implies a mutually supportive and collaborative partnership among teachers, pupils, parents, community and civil society. It is an established fact that teachers perform better and with enthusiasm if they get wholehearted parental and community support. Therefore, the teacher like other stakeholders will have to be taken into confidence, and their capacities built to enable them play their part effectively.

5.7 Public Private Partnership and Corporate Social Responsibility

5.7.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Organisations can play a crucial role by collaborating with community and local authorities for awareness generation and monitoring on RTE. They can bring in their ideas and resources in the areas of infrastructure development and capacity building etc.

5.8 SSA Support for Participation of Civil Society Organisations

5.9 Summing up

5.9.1 People's participation is fundamental to the success of SSA. The objective of equitable quality for all children can be attained only with active participation of all stakeholders including, parents, teachers, community, civil society and children. SSA would strive to enhance participation of general public by awareness generation, interventions for community mobilization and by promoting voluntarism. While providing enough support to NGOs, SSA would also help harness, full potential of grassroots institution like, Mahila Samoohs, Sangathans, SHGs, Mahila Samakhya federations, youth groups, groups working for people's rights, etc. as well as support formation of children's collectives and support groups for children without adult protection to address deficit of community support and ownership in respect of these children.

5.9.2 Empowered and technically equipped SMCs would be crucial for anchoring community awareness and participation efforts. States will have to invest in capacity building of SMC members to address this enormous challenge.

5.9.3 Participation of civil society is a crucial aspect of SSA. SSA would encourage participation of voluntary agencies and NGOs in different capacities ranging from advocates t o partners in need assessment and implementation and watch dogs. The partnership would be mutual, and not in the nature of subcontracting. During the next two years SSA can play a critical role in catalysing the role of civil society involvement in implementing RTE. As this will be a crucial period of re-orientation and identification of new challenges and areas of work, flexibility and space should be created within SSA to enable the development of innovations and in-depth work in specific areas. SSA would strive for ensuring that civil society organisations are included in every institutional mechanism being planned at the state as well as the district levels.

6. School Infrastructure Development - 6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 SSA aims to universalise access to elementary education in accordance with the vision of the RTE Act. Quality of the school building and availability of basic facilities therein is an important determiner of school access. The built environment of the school has to be inviting, attractive and comfortable to the child, so that the child is motivated to enrol in and attend school regularly.

6.1.2 The school building has to ensure easy access to all children and teachers and it has to be built with a sensitive understanding of their different requirements. For instance, special design features such as ramps, handrails, modified toilets etc are required to be built for children with disabilities. Similarly, separate toilets for girls including environmentally safe incinerators are definitely required for the older girl students at the upper primary stage. Considerations of equity in physical access must inform all interventions for school infrastructure development as well. The classroom design with natural light ventilation, seating, display, storage must ensure equity and quality in educational transactions.

6.1.3 The built environment of the school, along with the indoor and outdoor spaces, provides ample opportunities for learning. Creative use of spaces inside the classroom, verandas, outdoor natural environment and play areas- can serve to support learning. SSA has several instances of tapping the pedagogic potential of school spaces. Such use of school spaces will continue to be encouraged under SSA.

6.1.4 The Schedule to the RTE Act lays down the norms and standards for a school building. A school building has to be an all weather building comprising at least one classroom for every teacher and an office-cum-store-cum- Head teachers room, barrier free access, toilets, safe and adequate drinking water facility for all children, arrangements for securing the school building boundary wall or green fencing, a kitchen for cooking MDM, a playground, equipment for sports and games, a library, and TLM.

6.1.5 SSA will support the creation of school infrastructure as per the norms and standards specified in the RTE Act, both through direct programme funding and also in convergence with other relevant schemes of the Central and State Governments. Some examples of schemes with which convergence is required for school infrastructure creation and lip gradation are MDM scheme, drinking water, sanitation facilities, compound wall and playground development by Ministry of Rural Development raising plantation in school campus, under social forestry etc.

6.2 Whole School Development

6.2.1 Development of school infrastructure is a comprehensive exercise for developing the school building along with its indoor and outdoor spaces in ways that contribute to the goals of universal access, retention, equity and quality in education. Since the infrastructure design and development contributes towards learning of children in the school, it is not to be viewed narrowly as a building construction/ repair/maintenance activity alone.

6.2.2 Schools' infrastructure will have to be well thought-out physical learning environments and seen as integrated systems. They are no longer to be visualised as mere physical structures of collections of rooms. The design will need to address various aspects of the educational vision of the school. Each school component and space will need to be seen from the lens of right of the child and learning - existing as well as to be still made.

6.2.3 Whole School Development Plan (WSDP) is a combination of educational plan that guides the infrastructure plan and its effective usage in the learning processes. Whole School Development Plan has to reflect the vision of a school and ways to achieve it.

6.2.4 It is a master plan and base document for school's educational as well as infrastructural work along with its development in phases. Its planning is seen as an evolving process rather than one time activity.

6.3 Unified Vision of a School

6.3.1 At the national level, the vision is to develop each school's built-environment as an ecosystem for learning. The school is envisioned as inclusive and pedagogically rich, sustainable eco-system, safe and secure from hazards, incorporating elements of green architecture, optimum resource-utilisation through culturally and environmentally sustainable practices. Based on the above, the guiding principles for Whole School Development Plan are:

1. Infrastructure plan to follow the education plan

2. Child-centred planning with overall development of child (physical, social, emotional and cognitive) addressed

3. Responsive towards needs of all children and the diversity they bring in a school

4. Entire school space (indoor and outdoor) as learning continuum for a child and the teacher - this is to be recognised by all stakeholders while planning

5. Developing the entire school space as resource for fun and learning activities using ideas of Building as Learning Aid (BaLA)

6. A safe and secure environment for all children

7. Clean and hygienic environment for all children

8. Maximising the whole school as a resource - not just for children and teachers of that school but also for the community and neighbour hood schools

9. Respectful towards the local context and tradition - wisdom, social needs, educational needs, culture, geology, climate, flora-fauna, etc.

10. Optimum resource utilisation and cost-effectiveness

11. Integrates good practices in environmentally sustainable designs - to demonstrate and practice them

12. Scope for future expansion

6.3.2 Components of WSDP: The proposed components of WSDP a resummarized below:

6.3.3 WSDP will strive to move in this direction and will also describe SMC's plan to accomplish it in a phased manner. Being an evolving activity, its outcome in a phase can be reviewed and mid-course corrections, if needed be made.

6.4 Critical Considerations for Design, Planning and Implementation

6.4.1 School infrastructure surveys. - SSA will support all government and local body schools in meeting the infrastructure requirements specified in the schedule to the RTE Act. Augmentation of existing school infrastructure would require, inter alia, a survey of existing facilities in every school. Such a survey measured school campus map can be undertaken with community participation, facilitated by the School Management Committee etc. Engineers/architects may also be included in these joint surveys. This is necessary for a clear identification of school wise gaps in infrastructure vis-a-vis RTE requirements.

6.4.2 Schools to have composite buildings. - Each new school to be constructed under SSA will have a composite building, containing all features specified in the schedule to the RTE Act. That is, it shall have the requisite number of rooms, toilets and drinking water facilities, MDM kitchen shed, fence/boundary wall, playground, sports equipment, TLM and library. Existing government and local body schools will be supported under SSA to .upgrade to the levels specified under the Act. Graded augmentation of school infrastructure will be undertaken as enrollments increase, in accordance with an infrastructure plan based on measured school campus plan which will be a part of the School Development Plan to be prepared by the School Management Committee (SMC). To determine the appropriateness of physical spaces, following norms to be considered

6.4.3 School buildings to adhere to specified construction standards. - The National Building Code of India 2005, developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) provides guidelines for regulating building construction activities across the country. It serves as a model code for adoption by all agencies involved in building construction works, be they Public Works Departments, other government construction departments, local bodies or private construction agencies. The code should serve as a reference for all States and UTs, for design and construction of school infrastructure. This requirement does not preclude the use of local construction design, materials and practices. These may be adapted suitably to incorporate especially the requirements in the NBC regarding structural safety and also adhere to other specifications regarding,' for instance, the minimum space required for each child in the classroom. The relevant Indian Standard Codes (IS) are given below:

6.4.4 School buildings to have barrier free access. - Barrier free access implies that the physical design of the school building should be such that all children, including children with disabilities, should be able to move in all areas of the school and use all the facilities provided. Children with disabilities should be able to enter the school building easily and negotiate their way around the school and be able to use the playgrounds, drinking water and toilet facilities, libraries and laboratories. States / UTs will need to ensure that appropriate barrier free features, keeping in view the different requirements of children with different disabilities, are incorporated in all new building designs. Existing school buildings will need to be modified for the purpose by creating ramps with hand rails, toilet modifications; non slip walking surfaces, etc. All external and internal facilities and services in the school will have to be reviewed to assess whether they allow access to children with disabilities. Apart from barrier free access, features that enable learning in different spaces for such children - special furniture, display, learning boards and chalk boards that create inclusive situations for all children to be also promoted.

6.4.5 School buildings to incorporate child friendly features. - Schools are built for children. School building designs should, therefore, respond to the needs of children. Different facilities in the school should be built to the scale of the children, such as drinking water taps and urinals at different heights for children of different age groups/heights; children's chalkboards in classrooms at accessible height for children; simple and usable display and storage spaces in the classrooms, child friendly hardware fittings, spaces for children to interact and communicate with peer group, elder or younger children or adults, etc.

6.4.6 Maximising pedagogic potential of indoor and outdoor school spaces. - Design of both indoor and outdoor spaces of the school can facilitate learning in many different ways. The concept of 'BaLA' (Building as a Learning Aid) has been implemented in several States to unlock the pedagogic potential of built spaces and outdoor spaces in school premises. BaLA is about maximizing the educational, learning and fun value of a built space for children. Buildings are also the most expensive physical asset of a school. By innovatively treating the existing or new school spaces (e.g. classroom, circulation spaces, outdoors, natural environment) and their constituent built elements (like the floor, wall, ceiling, door, windows, furniture, open ground), a range of learning situations and materials can be integrated such that they can actively be used as a learning resource. This resource could complement teaching process and supplement textbook information, much beyond providing wall space for posters and decoration. Attributes of the building like dimensions, textures, shapes, angles, inside and outside, up and down and movement in spaces can be used to communicate some basic concepts of language, science, mathematics and environment, to make learning a truly enjoyable and memorable experience for children. BaLA aims at using the built elements like the floor, walls, pillars, staircases, windows, doors, ceilings, fans, trees, flowers, or even rainwater falling on the building as learning resource. For example, a window security grill can be designed to help the children practice pre-writing skills or understand functions; a range of angles can be marked under a door shutter on the floor to explain the concept of angles; or ceiling fans can be painted with colour wheels for the children to enjoy ever-changing formations; moving shadows of a flag-pole to act like a sundial to understand different ways of measuring time; planting trees that shed their leaves in winters and are green in summers to make a comfortable outdoor learning space. This is graded for different age groups and classes and can be adapted towards school-specific needs. With proper implementation, it not only helps in making the school inviting and attractive for children, it also helps in retaining them to be constructively engaged during and beyond school hours.

6.4.7 School buildings to incorporate safety features for resistance against hazards. - SSA will ensure that children receive education in a safe and secure environment. All school buildings under SSA will provide safety features in the structural design of the school buildings in order to make the school buildings safe. Structural safety features (against natural hazards such as earthquakes) should be built into the designs of new school buildings and existing school buildings should be retrofitted. The various IS codes for earthquake resistant design and construction and the safety features incorporated in the National Building Code, 2005 should inform the construction of school buildings that are safe for children. There are other natural and man made hazards against which appropriate safety should be ensured, such as floods, cyclones, fires, etc.

6.4.8 Creating a shelf of class room or learning space and school building designs. - The diversity of terrain and climates in different parts of the country and even within States requires the development of different classroom/learning space as well as school building designs that can respond to its particular features. In light of RTE, with increase in diversity of children within the classrooms, it is important that classroom and learning space design addresses their learning issues, functionality and comfort in the physical setting also. For example, schools where Activity Based Learning (ABL) i s practiced could have different types of classrooms and furniture design. Similarly those in desert areas would require designs, layout, alignment and construction materials that do not trap heat in the building. Region specific as well as site specific design strategies for schools may be developed, depending on the climate, locally available construction materials and skills. School building designs may use local and traditional architectural solutions with appropriate adaptations to ensure safety. SSA does not prescribe any generic school building design or unit costs for construction of classrooms. These will be as per State norms and as per State schedule of rates. Large number of (more than 100) building designs for school shave been developed in DPEP districts. These designs, apart from being attractive, are child centred, functional and in tune with the new pedagogical concepts. The publication called "Building rural Primary schools" published by the Ed.CIL and the building construction manuals developed by the Lok Jumbish Project may be utilised by all the States / districts to develop their civil works plan. The States may make use of designs already developed under DPEP/ Lok Jumbish Project in their specific local contexts. Incorporation of child-friendly internal and external elements will be mandatory in all the new construction and repair works.

6.5 Other Provisions for School Infrastructure Development

6.5.1 Major repairs. - There are large numbers of schools that cannot be repaired under the available maintenance grant. To facilitate the availability of funds for major repairs, civil works component of SSA allows major repairs up to Rs. 150 crore nationally, per annum under SSA subject to the conditions laid down in the relevant norms.

6.5.2 Adaptation of existing built environment (indoors / outdoors) towards new pedagogy Due to various innovations in pedagogy, either due to NCF-2005 or Activity Based Learning or LEP, there may be requirement for adaptation of existing learning spaces - classrooms, head teacher room, corridors, libraries, play spaces, outdoor spaces, terraces, amenities, etc. towards quality in learning. In light of the above, it is important to systematically identify the nature of adaptations and find the most cost-effective method to achieve it.

6.5.3 Retrofitting the existing buildings towards hazard resistance, thermal comfort, better light and ventilation. - Schools have been built prior to SSA and also during SSA. Depending on geographical location, its susceptibility to natural or man made hazards, may need to be clearly understood and suitable remedial measures in the form retrofitting be taken up. Similarly, many such schools may need modification in its openings or roofing, flooring, etc. to ensure better functionality of existing spaces from the perspective of adequate natural light, ventilation, thermal comfort, etc. Any such intervention will be less resource intensive than making afresh. However, here again the most effective methods may be used for such adaptations.

6.5.4 Drinking water and sanitation facilities. - Department of Drinking Water Supply in the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has a provision under the National Rural Drinking Water Mission to provide drinking water facility in rural schools. Further, Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the Department of Drinking Water Supply supports the creation of sanitation facilities (toilet and urinals) in rural schools. Rural schools that were sanctioned outside SSA and which do not have drinking water and sanitation facilities, can be covered under these schemes. However, provision of all sanitation facilities must be linked to the strength of boys, girls and adult users of the school, as per norms prescribed. It must be noted that in day-schools, the number of urinals for girls and boys may be more as compared to toilets and must be inclusive and barrier free and usable by adult school staff as well. When adding/constructing new, it will important to review the functionality of existing facilities and its effective usage also. Cost towards ensuring functionality and safety of existing urinals, toilets, drinking water by way of repair / augmentation / retrofitting shall be supported by SSA. The agencies responsible for implementing SSA and drinking water and sanitation programmes may coordinate their efforts to ensure coverage of all schools.

6.5.5 Playgrounds and Outdoor spaces. - Outdoor space is important for overall child development, provided it is sensitively developed. This may contain school garden (e.g. kitchen garden / herbal garden), tree groves, places of mutual interactions, sports and play spaces, etc. The school playground shall be maintained through community mobilization, community shramdan or community contribution or through convergence as is being done already.

6.5.6 Kitchen sheds. - A kitchen with specifications that keep the kitchen clean and hygienic can be provided in all new schools under SSA. In all schools sanctioned outside the scheme of SSA, provision for kitchen sheds is made under the MDM scheme.

6.5.7 Boundary wall or fencing. - All school campuses shall be secured by providing boundary wall or green fencing with a gate. This will help to secure the school premises and also enable development of a school garden. This will make the campus green, child friendly and safe for the children.

6.5.8 Furniture for upper primary schools. - Wherever the States/UTs' have achieved substantial progress in filling up infrastructure gaps and the civil works, requirement is less than 33% of the total district outlay, furniture to Government Upper Primary Schools @ Rs. 500 per child as a one time grant can be given, provided the civil work ceiling inclusive of furniture for children, is not more than 33% of the district outlay. It is also mandatory that funds are not pooled and procurement will be done by the School Management Committee. It is suggested that, based on the evolving pedagogy, as emerging from the quality perspective, age and pedagogy appropriate model designs of furniture be developed and shared with SMCs so that, when they get it made, it is suitable to the educational activities in the classroom.

6.5.9 Residential hostels. - There are certain areas in the country where it is unviable to set up schools. These include sparsely populated or hilly and densely forested areas with difficult geographical terrains. There are also densely populated urban areas, where it is difficult to get land for establishing schools. Also, in urban areas, there are a number of urban deprived children: homeless and street children in difficult circumstances, without adult protection, who require not merely day schooling facilities, but also lodging and boarding facilities. Residential hostels can be built for children under SSA as per norms in this regard.

6.5.10 Construction of KGBV buildings. - KGBVs provide residential schools in educationally backward blocks at upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities. There are three models of KGBV schools. The States will develop their own innovative designs for KGBV buildings. The construction of KGBV can be done by the State SSA Mission Society or any other technical agency, as appropriate.

6.6. Planning and Implementation

6.6.1 Community's active role in school infrastructure development. - Planning and implementation by the community through SMC in all school infrastructure development activities will be mandatory in order to ensure a sense of ownership and a departure from contractor driven approaches. Engagement of contractors in building construction will not be allowed under SSA. Community participation envisaged under Lok Jumbish, DPEP and under SSA in many States has been very encouraging and these will be continued.

6.6.2 Transparency and social accountability. - There will be complete transparency in all works undertaken under SSA, especially those for school infrastructure development. The technical design, financial approvals, received and spent amounts, muster rolls, measurement books, books of accounts etc. in respect of the works shall be available for perusal/copies in accordance with the provisions of the Right to Information Act. In fact, proactive disclosure of this information in the meetings of the SMC and the entire Gram Sabha will be encouraged under SSA. Besides regular financial audit as per extant rules, social audit will be encouraged to strengthen social accountability to the community which has a real and direct stake in a well functioning school.

6.7 Capacity Building of SMC for Undertaking Building Construction. - 6.7.1 Construction activities under SSA are to be undertaken with community involvement. No contractors can be engaged for the task, except in the rare cases of such buildings that, in the opinion of the PAB, require special design and technical skills. SSA will encourage use of local construction materials and low cost and environment friendly technologies, without compromising on the structural soundness and safety of the building. The SMC will need to be trained in certain specific technical aspects such as collaborating in the development of drawings, understanding cost estimates, assessing building material quality, keeping accounts, material procurement etc. Training will also include aspects like payment of at least minimum wages; equal wages to women, no engagement of child labour, maintaining transparency about funds received and used through social audits, display boards etc. The training can be imparted in a simple and effective manner in the local language, through technical/other experts, who are themselves trained to communicate effectively and demystify these issues.

6.8 Allocation for School Infrastructure Development. - 6.8.1 The allocation for School Infrastructure Development (formerly Civil Works) will not exceed 33% of the total approved outlays under SSA on the entire project cost. However, in the finalisation of a particular year's plan, provision of civil works can be made at a higher level depending on the priority assigned to various components of the programme. In a particular year's annual plan, provision for civil works can be considered up to 50% of the annual plan expenditure, within the overall project ceiling of 33%.

6.9 Unit Cost. - 6.9.1 The unit cost, where not specifically mentioned in the SSA norms, would be based on State Schedule of Rates (SoR) duly notified by State Government. In case of drinking water facility and toilet facility, also the unit cost should be worked out on the basis of Schedule of Rates for these works duly notified by the State Government.

6.10 Technical Support for Implementation. - 6.10.1 Creating/accessing technical capacity for large scale school infrastructure creation and for quality assurance. - For meeting the infrastructure requirements of new and existing schools within the defined timelines, sufficient numbers of technically qualified staff will need to be put in place at block, district and State level for assisting the SMC with technical drawings and estimates and for quality supervision. States will need to evolve systems for communicating the specific requirements of school . buildings (child friendly design of classrooms and facilities, outdoor and indoor spaces to be developed as learning resources, safety and hazard resistant features, barrier free access, whole school planning etc) to the technical personnel, especially if they are from State Works Departments, since these Works Departments may have not been oriented on these themes from a child centred or pedagogic-perspective. The local level construction agency will also need to be oriented on these perspectives.

6.10.2 Quality Assurance. - In order to assure quality of civil works, an independent assessment of the technical quality of civil works, through Third Party Evaluation (TPE)Ts mandatory. The commissioning of TPE to assure quality of construction visit of TPE at plinth, lintel, roof and at finishing level is essential. It should also ensure that construction has been carried out in accordance with design, drawings and specification. Besides checking the quality of building material by visual inspection, testing of building material and building technology, design functionality and role of community participation are ensured. The TPE is to highlight good practices, bring out strength and weaknesses and share with the block/district/state level engineers and Administrators in weekly and monthly meetings for further improvement. In addition inbuilt quality control test for building material and building technologies are under taken by in house engineering cell or agency supervising / facilitating technical support (these tests are essential particularly for major building like KGBVs and Residential schools).

6.10.3 Setting up design cell at State and district level. - A design cell in the civil works unit at the State and district level is essential for Whole school development plan. The unit must have Design engineers, Architects, Structural engineers well conversant with earth quake resistant designs and experts in Energy efficiency/Green buildings issues, Experts from Pedagogy, Gender and Inclusive Education etc. who are well oriented on the philosophy of SSA. The Design cell experts can either be on deputation/on contract or on empanelment.

6.11 SSA Support for School Infrastructure

7. Management And Monitoring. - 7.1 Management

7.1.1 In every state of our country, there are age-old systems for administration of elementary education. Over the years, SSA has superimposed on these systems. A management structure which has more or less satisfactorily met the needs of the project. In most States, the extant administrative system and the one created for implementation of SSA have endured side by side. The RTE Act has created a circumstance in which the existing two- dimensional system must be reviewed and, while causing no detriment to the ongoing SSA project, within the shortest possible time, a system should be created which would adequately respond to the demands of the new law. Staffing and strengthening of Management Structures at the national, state, district, block and cluster levels would be a prerequisite in timely and efficient implementation of the programme. The project management structure and requirement of manpower, delegation and capacity building would have to be reviewed in light of the larger fund availability and considerable expansion of the activities of SSA in view of the RTE Act.

7.2 Harmonisation of the Departmental and SSA Structures at the National Level. - 7.2.1 The SSA is governed at the Centre by a General Body chaired by the Prime Minister, an Executive Committee and a Project Approval Board. In the states, it is implemented through separately registered societies with staff deputed from the State Government or appointed on contract. A Governing Body and an Executive Committee functions in every State too. A State Project Director oversees the SSA at the State level, in addition to the already existing Director/Commissioner of Education.

7.2.2 The RTE Act envisages a National Advisory Council at the Centre1 and State Advisory Councils, to advice on the implementation of the Act. As for monitoring, the Act designates the NCPCR and the SCPCRs (or REP A) to ensure that the rights of children are not violated.

1 Notification constituting the National Advisory Council (NAC) is at Annexure 25

7.2.3 SSA has a Joint Review Mission (JRM) that reviews the progress of the project every six months. The developmental partners of SSA, namely the World Bank, the DFID and the European Commission, are a part of this JRM exercise.

7.2.4 RTE requires the entire education department to be geared in a unified manner to take up the task on a long term basis. In the long run, this would require the unification of the existing SSA structures with the regular education department! The actual convergence of SSA structures with the regular education department and the SCERT should commence immediately; dichotomous and overlapping structures, wherever they exist and are adversely affecting the programme, should be eliminated. However, complete integration of SSA and Elementary Education Department structures may take some time. It is, therefore, prudent to implement a transitional strategy whereby a modified SSA remains the modality to be replaced by a new scheme compatible with the provisions of the Act from the middle of the Twelfth Plan period. Till then, SSA would be the vehicle for implementation of the RTE Act.

7.2.5 Thus, the NAC/SACs under the RTE Act will coexist with the General Body and Executive Committee structure of the SSA till the NAC/SACs take over the full advisory role by end of the Eleventh Plan. Similarly, as the NCPCR/SCPCR (REPA) gradually takes over the monitoring role, and it becomes clear what the future role of the development partners shall be beyond the Eleventh Plan period, the JRM would continue. In the meantime, the precise nature of review and monitoring beyond the Eleventh Plan could be worked out in a manner that fulfils the provisions of the Act.

7.3 The State Level Structure. - 7.3.1 The RTE Act has tasks that are not necessarily confined to the MHRD or the State Education Departments. Direct responsibility to provide schools, infrastructure, trained teachers, curriculum and teaching learning material, and mid day meal undoubtedly lies with the Education Departments of the State Governments, including SCERTs and SSA. But the factors that contribute to the achievement of the overall goal of universalising elementary education, as a fundamental right, require action on the part of the whole Government. A well coordinated mechanism is needed for inter-sectoral collaboration and convergence.

•  The Finance Departments must provide adequate and appropriate financial allocations and timely releases of funds at all levels.

•  The Public Works Departments need to re-conceptualise and re-design school spaces from the pedagogic perspective, and address issues of inclusion for children with disabilities through barrier free access.

•  The Departments of Science and Technology should provide geo-spatial technologies for school mapping and location to supplement social mapping exercises at the grassroots level.

•  Programmes for Water and Sanitation must ensure access to adequate and safe drinking water, and accessible and adequate sanitation facilities especially for girls in schools.

•  The RTE Act mandates that every child must be in school; this pre-supposes that child labour will be eliminated. The Labour Departments must align their policies with the RTE Act, so that all children can participate in the schooling process regularly.

•  The immense relevance of inclusive education, particularly of disadvantaged groups, demands vibrant partnerships with the departments and organisations concerned with children of SC, ST, and educationally backward minorities.

•  Systems for equal opportunity for children with special needs will need to be addressed with the departments handling children with disabilities.

•  The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Departments would need to accelerate poverty reduction programmes, so that children are freed from domestic chores and wage earning responsibilities.

•  State Governments must simultaneously ensure that the panchayat raj institutions get appropriately involved so that the "local authorities" can discharge their functions under the RTE Act.

•  There is need for close cooperation with the NCPCR/SCPCR and the Departments of Women and Child Development to ensure that children get their rights under the RTE Act.

•  Programmes under the National Rural Health Mission must take up school health programmes, including de-worming and micro-nutrient supplementation, with special attention to vulnerable groups, especially girls approaching adolescence.

•  The Sports Departments would need to build in physical education and yoga for the overall physical, social, emotional and mental development of the child.

7.3.2 It is also necessary to initiate measures for integration of the two systems - the SSA project management and the directorate of elementary education. The characteristics of the new integrated management system at the State level would include:

(i) continuance of practically all the components of the office of SPD;

(ii) Its being able to serve as the secretariat to the society which, inter alia, would continue to channelise funds from the central and State Governments (including the transfers made on the recommendation of the Finance Commission);

(iii) Having the ability to discharge responsibilities envisaged under the RTE Act;

(iv) Dispensing with problems created by multiplicity of departments/sub- departments (such as SPD, Director of Primary Education, Director of SCERT, etc) and lack of unified leadership; and

(v) Having an inbuilt ability to coordinate and provide the required proficiency.

State Level Integrated Structure For SSA And RTE

7.4 District Level Structure. - 7.4.1 In the new system, it is only logical that the District Education Officers (DEOs) should fully combine the functions of DEO as well as District Project Coordinators (DPCs). There would then be no need for the position of Additional DPC. DEO would have, more or less, all the units that are envisaged at the State level. He/she would liaise with DIET and in cooperation with that Institute oversee the functioning of BRCs and CRCs. Each of the 6-8 unit heads in the set up of DEO would function in matrix mode, which implies that each unit head would have responsibility for one or more subject areas as well as over one or more blocks (BEO as well as BRC/CRC).

District Level Integrated Structure

7.5 Local Authority. - 7.5.1 Responsibility for implementation of the RTE Act has been vested in "appropriate government" (mainly State Governments and UT Administrations) and the local authority. These functions are spelt out in Sections 8 and 9. In addition, the local authority is to consider and redress the grievances relating to the right of the child as stated in Section 32. Local authority is defined under Section 2(h) as follows:

"local authority" means a Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council or Zila Parishad or Nagar Panchayat or Panchayat, by whatever name called, and includes such other authority or body having administrative control over the school or empowered by or under any law for the time being in force to function as a local authority in any city, town or village;.

7.5.2 This definition indicates that municipal bodies and panchayats are local authority; and in addition (a) a body having administrative control over schools of the area; and (b) a body set up under state/UT law or by an order issued by it would also be included as "local authority". This implies that in all areas, at the minimum, the elected local body as well as the local administrative apparatus shall comprise the local authority. The only scope for State/UT specific variation may consist of any committee or council or some such body set up by a State Government/UT Administration-which too would come within the definition of local authority. The State Governments/UT Administrations have, generally speaking, elucidated the inter se relationship among these bodies. However, where this has not been clarified the State Governments/UT Administrations could do so now.

7.6 School Management Committee (SMC). - 7.6.1 While system level management structures get reformed on the lines indicated above, for effective implementations of various provisions, ensuring that children's right to education along with various entitlements specified in the RTE Act rests with the School Management Committee and the school heads. The RTE Act gives immense importance to SMCs as the decentralised structure, and one in which the parents will have a very significant role. Essential provisions regarding constitution and functions of SMCs have been given in Sections 21 and 22. These have been elaborated in the draft Rules prepared for consideration and adoption by State Governments/UT Administrations with such modifications as they may consider appropriate. In addition to those provisions there is need to lay emphasis on the following issues:

7.6.2 The State Governments have to issue further guideline to ensure that SMCs are enabled to function in an effective manner and arrangements are made for adequate capacity building. Relating school grants to School Development Plans under RTE adds a new dimension to utilisation of school grants. This envisages that current practice of providing predetermined schematic budgets is replaced by and providing support based on plans developed by School Development Committees.

Wherever the State Governments and UTs designate the Panchayat Raj Institution (PRI) as the local authority, their support may be taken to fulfill the following responsibilities in elementary education:

1. Creating an enabling environment for realising the rights of children under the RTE Act. Ideally, a mass mobilisation campaign should be launched to create a groundswell for children's rights under the RTE Act, on the lines of the literacy campaigns launched in the 1990s. SSA norms have been revised to provide 0.5% of the annual outlay for community mobilisation activities, and these funds could be utilised for launching a well conceptualised RTE campaign.

2. Initiate the development of action plans for opening new schools in unserved areas, through a mapping of existing institutions, locating appropriate sites for new schools, and delineating the catchment area of each school according to local logistics, and subject to norms and standards laid down under the RTE Act and Rules.

3. Identify out-of-school children, largely representing weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, ensuring age appropriate admission through Special Training, motivating parents and creating conditions to free them from domestic/ wage earning responsibilities, and monitoring regular attendance of all children and teachers in schools. Similarly, PRIs could be involved in special intensive efforts required for migrant children, and ensuring that they are provided educational opportunities through establishment of seasonal hostels.

4. For differently-abled children, PRIs could render valuable support in identification, determination of the level of their disability through organised camps, ensuring that appropriate aids and appliances are made available to such children, and ensuring that such children are provided adequate support for being mainstreamed in regular schools.

5. Initiate a campaign to register the birth of all children up to the age of 18 years in order to maintain records of children. As part of this exercise, a computerised data base of every child below the age of 18 years may be prepared and their progress tracked. Such a data base could provide the basis for preparing school development plans by School Management Committees, which can be aggregated at the district level.

6. Monitor teacher vacancies in schools and send reports to the educational authority concerned. They may also monitor teacher training, and provide infrastructure facilities wherever required. Attendance monitoring could be the responsibility of Gram Panchayat.

7. Develop and improve infrastructure, by using their own funds or funds devolved by the State Finance Commissions and the 13th Finance Commission, or funds from schemes like BRGF.

8. Set up Grievance Redressal Committees headed by the Chairperson of the PRI body or the Chairperson of the Standing Committee concerned. The Grievance Redressal Committee may set up a small enquiry group consisting of three or four persons representing the PRI, the Education Department and the Civil Society. This group may enquire into petitions and complaints and submit reports to the Grievance Redressal Committee. Thereafter, the Grievance Redressal Committee could hear the persons concerned, take decisions and issue necessary directions for settling the grievance. Detailed procedural guidelines need be issued to ensure that due process is followed and orders are issued.

9. Set up an Education Committee in order to oversee the operationalization of the RTE Act. This could be an enlarged version of the Standing Committee dealing with education in a Local Government and may consist of elected representatives, experts, activists, parents, headmasters and officials from the Education Department.

7.7 Monitoring. - 7.7.1 Following is abroad grouping of monitoring mechanisms and processes anchored at community/village, school, block, district, state and national levels.

7.7.2 Monitoring by the SMC. - The support of the SMC and village based organisations would be invaluable in communicating in simple and creative ways the rights of the child as enunciated in the Act to the population in the neighbourhood of the school; as also the duties of the appropriate Government, local authority, school, parents and guardians. In pursuance of the RTE Act, SSA will institute a community based monitoring system for the SMC to

(i) ensure the enrolment and attendance of all the children, especially children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in the school(s);

(ii) ensure that children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections are not discriminated against, and prevented from pursuing and completing elementary education.

(iii) monitor that all not-enrolled and drop out children are facilitated to participate in Special Training for age appropriate admission to regular school as per section 4 of the RTE Act.

(iv) monitor the identification, enrolment and participation of children with disability in elementary education, and ensure that facilities for their education are provided.

(v) ensure that child rights under the RTE Act, especially rights with respect to prohibition of physical and mental harassment, expulsion and detention, the provision of any-time admission are observed in letter and spirit, and that child entitlements, including uniforms, text books, mid-day meal, etc. are provided in a timely manner. Deviations would be taken up with the Head Teacher. The SMC would bring instances of persistent disregard of child rights to the notice of the local authority.

(vi) monitor the maintenance of the norms and standards specified in the Schedule to the RTE Act.

(vii) monitor that teachers are not burdened with non-academic duties other than those specified in section 27 of the RTE, viz., decennial population census, disaster relief and elections to Parliament, Legislature and Local Bodies;

(viii) ensure that teachers maintain regularity and punctuality in attendance as per Section 24(a), hold regular meetings with parents to apprise them about their child's progress as per section 24(e), and do not engage in private tuition as per section 28 of the RTE Act.

7.8 School Supervision by Block and Cluster Functionaries. - 7.8.1 During the last few decades school supervision has grievously suffered due to insufficiency of staff and administrative neglect. The effort made under SSA, through establishment of BRCs and CRCs, has improved matters marginally, but the overall situation has remained essentially unchanged. As a result, functioning of schools has deteriorated and quality of the teaching-learning process has shown no improvement. Improvement of quality of education is a pre-requisite of successful implementation of the RTE Act.

7.8.2 Periodic inspection/super vision of schools to observe the infrastructure and facilities and the administrative aspects is critical. In addition, a proper system of academic and curricular support has to be developed to serve the purpose of continuing professional upgradation of teachers and to see that school syllabi and learner evaluation system are operationalised as expected.

7.8.3 Each Block Education Officer should have a contingent of Assistant EOs (with whatever designation), who should be expected to undertake at least two visits to every school each year. Among other things they should look at the record required to be maintained by teachers/headmasters, condition of school building and infrastructure and seating arrangement for students. They should be asked to pay particular attention to availability of potable drinking water, usability of toilets, kitchen where MDM is cooked and whether the school has well-maintained boundary wall.

7.8.4 Each BRC has specialist staff of 5-7. Besides, there are a number of CRCs, perhaps one for every 15 villages. Between the staff of these two resource centres, it should be possible for one person to visit each school once every two months, every month, if the circumstances so allow. The purpose of these visits would be to provide curricular support to teachers - particularly progress with syllabus, the manner in which use is being made of textbooks and other materials, assess and support teachers develop TLM and the manner in which continuous and comprehensive evaluation is being put into effect. In addition, BRCs ought to conduct workshops with subject teachers of upper primary classes and they as well as CRCs should organise trainings expected of them.

7.8.5 The staff from the office of BEO as well as from BRCs and CRCs should ordinarily not to be expected to prepare inspection/visit reports. Rather, they should record their main observations in a register that may be maintained in each school. ITMs/teachers should take action on the visit note. In addition, computer should be available in the office of BEO, and in BRCs and CRCs so that important observations (particularly points on which administrative action is to be taken) are shared through internet.

7.9 Monitoring of the District Level. - 7.9.1 At the district level, SSA will have the following mechanism for monitoring the programme:

(i) Independent and regular field visits to monitor performance by Social Science Monitoring Institutes.

(ii) Regular visit to field by Resource Persons and TSG Consultants

(iii) Visits by District Level Committee comprising local/public representatives to monitor the implementation of the SSA programme in the districts

(iv) District Information System for Education (DISE)

7.10 Monitoring through DISE. - 7.10.1 The school-based annual information system, called District Information System for Education (DISE), will continue to be implemented throughout the country. Through this system, data on important aspects of a school, such as physical infrastructure and facilities, availability of teachers, enrolment by social category, age of a child, medium of instruction and training of teachers, etc. is collected annually with 30th September as the reference date.

7.10.2 Certain new variables have been added in the DISE Data Capture Formats (DCF) to ensure monitoring of all aspects of the RTE Act in the school. The new items include, (i) information on the constitution and functionality of SMCs, (ii) number of instructional days, (iii) special training in the context of age appropriate admission, (iii) TLM, (iv) transport facility, (v) average attendance etc. Collection of data on new items will commence from 2010-11.

7.10.3 DISE data covers all schools irrespective of its type i.e. recognized or un-recognized, and its management, whether government or private. The data collected under DISE should be used for all purposes and treated as official data for the State. The States should move towards a unified system of collecting data for elementary level. The ongoing parallel systems in several states should be unified and integrated in DISE.

7.10.4 DISE based information and analysis throws light on infrastructure facilities, access, retention, teacher-related issues and are immensely useful for monitoring, planning and mid-course corrections. Teachers 'rationalisation, prioritisation of physical infrastructure and teachers' training issues can be addressed through effective use of DISE data.

7.10.5 DISE data must undergo consistency checks and requisite post enumeration survey. In order to increase transparency, the information provided by the schools to DISE should be publicly displayed in each school. The DISE software has the facility to print School Report Cards which can be displayed on notice board of each school. Moreover, the schools' report cards can also be printed from the web-site (www.schoolreportcards.in). Besides this, a system of reading DISE data to the community through a Shiksha Gram Sabha or Jan-Vaachan should be carried out in respect of each school by the SMC.

7.10.6 NUEPA has been bringing out a series of publications every year entitled 'Flash Statistics', 'Analytical Reports', 'State Report Cards', 'District Report Cards', 'Elementary Education in India: Rural/Urban' and 'Analytical Tables' based on the data received from the States. These reports should be taken into account for monitoring the outcomes.

7.11 Monitoring at the State Level. - 7.11.1 The following monitoring mechanism is provided at the state level:

(i) State Commission for Protection of Child Rights or Right to Education Protection Authority

(ii) Periodic meetings of the State Executive Committee of SSA

(iii) State level quarterly review meetings with State Coordinators of important functional areas including financial management.

(iv) Internal audit by the States.

(v) State specific responsibilities to Research and Resource Institutions for supervision, monitoring, evaluation and research activities.

7.11.2 The State SSA Societies will also undertake intensive monitoring. Representatives of the National Mission for UEE and National level institutions like NCTE, NUEPA, NCERT and TSG will also undertake periodic monitoring and provide resource support to the SIS to strengthen planning, management and monitoring systems. Efforts to associate autonomous institutions willing to take up State specific responsibilities for research and evaluation would continue. Independent institutions would also be associated in developing effective tools for conducting achievement tests, monitoring quality aspects of programme implementation, undertaking evaluations and research studies.

7.12. Monitoring at the National Level. - 7.12.1 Monitoring at the national level would include the following aspects of the RTE Act:

•  Availability of schooling facility both at primary level and upper primary level in all the habitations to ensure physical and social access in the neighbourhood.

•  Addressing needs of children living in very small hamlets (in remote, desert/ tribal areas) where opening of schools is not visible and ensuring access by providing free transportation to and fro school and or through residential facility to ensure access J for such children.

•  Integration of Class VIII with upper primary schools and Class V with primary schools, in those States which follow a four year primary education cycle and seven upper primary cycle.

•  The school development plans which have to be prepared by SMCs to ensure that schools have all facilities such as infrastructure, teachers, TLE and child friendly and barrier free access with good learning environment.

•  Issues of gender and social exclusion under the ambit of SSA, NPEGEL and KG13V, gender based discrimination should become an integral part of social audit.

•  Ensuring age-appropriate admission in neighbourhood schools for children especially those belonging to the disadvantage groups such as children of Dalit and Tribal communities, Muslim and other minority children, girls, urban deprived children, street children/child labour and children without adult protection etc.

•  The process of providing special training to the children, who are admitted in schools to bring them at par with other children.

•  Formulation of child rights based policies and enabling provisions for implementing the RTE Act, 2009 e.g. banning screening for admission, no board exams, no detention, banning corporal punishment, etc.

7.12.2 In addition, SSA would continue to conduct the following:

(i) National level half yearly review meetings and quarterly regional review meetings with State Education Secretaries and State Project Directors.

(ii) National, Regional and State specific review meetings capacity building training programmes.

(iii) Half yearly Joint Review Missions by Government of India, the State Governments and (any) external funding agencies.

(iv) Independent assessment/studies to be carried out for independent feedback on implementation of the programme.

(v) A Computerised Educational Management Information System giving annual school based data with school and district report cards by NUEPA.

(vi) An Educational Development Index (EDI) to assess State's/District 's progress towards Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) by NUEPA.

(vii) A set of Quality Monitoring Tools developed in collaboration with NCERT to provide quarterly and annual information on quality related indices.

(viii) Results framework to measure outcomes against the pre decided targets and baseline.

(ix) Statutory audit of SSA accounts annually by Chartered Accountant Firms (from CAG approved panel)

(x) Concurrent Financial Review of SSA accounts by Institute of Public Auditors of India (IPAI).

(xi) Periodical review of physical and financial progress of the programme by TSG Consultants.

(xii) Base line assessment of learning achievements at the primary level and the upper primary level in all States by NCERT.

(xiii) Field visits by Members of the EE Bureau and TSG.

(xiv) Field based monitoring by Monitoring Institutes (MIs).

7.12.3 Monitoring Institutes. - Institutions, including University Departments of Education, Social Science and Institutes of national stature have been assigned the work of periodic monitoring of SSA implementation in States & UTs. In large States, more than one Institute has been assigned the task of monitoring. These Monitoring Institutes (MIs) are required to make field visit and report on progress of SSA at the ground level every six months. This cycle is repeated every two years. The half yearly monitoring reports received from the Monitoring Institutes are available on the website- www.ssa.nic.in SSA programme modifies the terms of reference of the Monitoring Institutes as and when required.

7.12.4 Web portal. - The web portal for SSA (www.ssa.nic.in) has been operationalised with the help of National Information Centre (NIC) to facilitate monitoring and programme management. The portal has two interfaces; a) Government to Citizens (G to C), and, b) Government to Government (G to G).

(a) The G to C interface has been developed to enable citizens of the country monitor the progress made indifferent components of SSA. Important information like minutes of the Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings and sanctions to states have been uploaded on this interface.

(b) The G to G interface has a management information system (MIS) which keeps track of all the interventions of the programme. The progress made by each State is monitored on quarterly basis.

7.12.5 Results Framework. - A Results Framework with identified measurable indicators, baseline and targeted results and frequency of measuring outcomes has been developed and has been in use for some time. The States/ districts are expected to develop the State/ district specific Results Framework on the suggested indicators.

7.12.6 Surveys and research studies. - In order to assess SSA impact across the states on education indicators like enrolment, student/ teacher attendance and retention etc. the National Mission of SSA commissions surveys and research studies. The findings of these surveys and studies help in ascertaining the degree of SSA's success on key indicators and assessment of needs and gaps for course correction and follow-up.

7.12.7 Technical Support Group (TSG). - The TSG in Ed.CIL has been created to provide technical support in functional areas pertaining to access, equity and quality of education. Different Units in TSG also monitor very closely, planning and management, financial aspects, processes for improving access, equity and quality and the progress therein. The Project Approval Board of SSA approves the AW&B for TSG each year.

7.12.8 Educational Development Index (EDI). - The EDIs are calculated I based on a large number of variables derived from the DISE data. EDIs for each district clearly indicate the journey a district has to traverse to reach the overall goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE). A study I of the related parameters provide adequate insight for prioritizing interventions and activities for improving elementary education in the District/State, as well as monitoring parameters that have low EDI value. I Efforts should be made by the States to develop sub-district & school based EDIs.

7.12.9 In order to monitor progress on above aspects, SSA would strengthen its existing multi-tier monitoring system. However, in doing so, it should be ensured that teachers, CRPs and BRPs etc. are not burdened with the responsibility of information collection and collation so that they can focus on children's learning with equitable quality. The whole lot of information gathered at the grassroots need not pass through ail levels of management right up to the top. Rather, each level should focus only on the information that is relevant at that particular level. This would enable SSA in decentralisation and delegation not only for monitoring but for follow-up action as well to bridge any gaps and address impediments in time and in appropriate manner.

7.13 Quality Monitoring Tools

7.13.1 A set of quality monitoring tools have been developed in collaboration with NCERT to provide half yearly and annual information on several quality related indices of RTE-SSA covering the following:

(i) Student enrollment and actual attendance

(ii) Pupil achievement levels

(iii) Teacher availability and teacher training

(iv) Classroom Practices

(v) Academic supervisions of schools by Cluster and Block Resource Centres

(vi) Community perceptions of school functioning States should make efforts to ensure that data generated by QMT is in the public domain.

7.14 Funding for Research, Evaluation, Monitoring and Supervision (REMS)

7.14.1 A total provision of up to Rs. 2000 per school per year has been made for research, evaluation, monitoring and super vision (REMS). Out of this amount, Rs. 500 per school will be available at the National level. Rs. 50 per school will be available for monitoring the programme by NCPCR from the National Level. And another Rs. 50 per school will be available for SCPCR from the State level which should be pooled together for implementing the approved activities. The Executive Committee of the State SSA Mission will decide on the division of resources at various levels, from the State to the school from the balance Rs. 1450 per school. The funds for monitoring will be used for carrying out the following activities:

(i) Creating a pool of resource persons at national, state, district, sub district level for effective-field based monitoring.

(ii) Providing support to the NCPCR and SCPCR for protecting the rights of the child under the RTE Act.

(iii) Generating community based data.

(iv) Conducting achievement tests, evaluations, studies etc.

(v) Undertaking research activities, including, action research.

(vi) Setting up special task force for low female literacy districts and for special monitoring of girls, SCs, STs.

(vii) Incurring expenditure on DISE

(viii) Providing travel grant and a modest honorarium (as per State specific norm) to resource persons for monitoring.

(ix) Undertaking contingent expenditure for visual monitoring systems

(x) Supporting formulation and activities of assessment/appraisal teams.

(xi) Analysing data at various levels.

7.14.2 States would need to give priority to developing and implementing, monitoring systems to measure quality related outcomes, such as students learning outcomes, teacher performance, student and teacher attendance rates by gender and social categories, as also parameters for measuring changes in classroom practices, impact of teacher training, efficacy of textbooks and textual materials, quality of academic supervision provided by BRCs/ CRCs/ DIETs etc.

7.14.3 State and district provisioning will include inter alia for DISE, allocations for regular school mapping/micro planning for location of schools, other school infrastructure and updating of household data on 6-14 year old children's educational status.

(i) Involvement of State SCERTs, DIETs and SIEMATs (where SIEMATs are functional), will be mandatory in the execution of this component.

(ii) Involvement of other independent national and State level resource institutions in conducting REMS activities should been couraged through appropriate MOUs/contracts

(iii) Each State /UT RTE-SS A Mission will set up a Research Approval Committee for processing and approving all research and evaluation studies to be undertaken at the State level. Appropriate mechanisms should also be set up for district level by the State SSA.

(iv) SSA would encourage independent research and supervision by autonomous research institutions. Institutions of proven excellence have been requested to take up State specific responsibilities.

The focus in partnership with institutions will also be on developing capacities through the interaction in SCERTs / SIEMATs/DIETs to carry out research and evaluation tasks. Faculty / Department of Education in Universities would also be requested to participate in such activities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The Regional Institutes of Education (RIE) of NCERT will also be associated in these tasks.

8. Protection Of Child Rights Through Grievance Redressal And Monitoring. - 8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 The RTE which came into effect in April 2010 mandates that the implementation of the rights enshrined in this Act be monitored by the NCPCR and the corresponding SCPCRs [Section 31]. This is a radical new feature and sets a precedent in the legislative history of India, wherein an autonomous neutral body has been charged with monitoring the implementation of a fundamental right. It presents a great opportunity to institute a system of independent monitoring that ensures that the entitlements guaranteed in the Constitution are indeed being provided to the rights holders. At the same time, it poses a huge challenge as it involves building a.system that is able to receive feedback from the last child and respond to it in a manner that ensures the rights are indeed protected.

8.1.2 The RTE is the latest addition to the legal instruments being used by the Government of India for guaranteeing development in a right based framework. The basic premise of this approach is an expectation that the delivery of a service hitherto inadequate or inefficient will be aligned to meet the demands of the people and be in conformity with their rights under the law. This premise makes two assumptions: a) that the people know their rights under the law and are able to demand them and b) that the system of delivery responds to their demands in an efficient and effective manner. Further, the existence of an independent monitoring agency provides an additional institutional space for ensuring rights. Together all three features if adequately institutionalised can ensure that the rights of the child under RTE are enforced in the manner intended.

8.1.3 It is worth pointing out here that grievance redressal and monitoring while separate functions are interdependent. In other words, the absence of a grievance redressal system implies that monitoring in a right framework would necessarily entail intervention of the judiciary. A well managed grievance redressal mechanism on the other hand allows for monitoring to be effective through interaction with the system rather than the judiciary. This means that for SSA to function effectively in the era of RTE, it will need to develop links with both the grievance redressal as well as monitoring structures mandated under the Act.

8.2 Grievance Redressal under the RTE Act. - 8.2.1 The RTE Act has made local authorities the grievance redressal agencies and the SCPCRs the appellate bodies at the State level. In this context, it is necessary to establish the modalities through which violations can be dealt with. A well defined institutional mechanism for grievance redressal involves a system of registering , investigating and responding within a well-appointed time frame. This will have to be done along with the implementation agency which is charged with the actual redressal of the grievance by ensuring that the right under consideration is actually restored.

8.2.2 Given below are some of the issues that need to be addressed for establishing such a mechanism:

1. List the set of legal entitlements guaranteed in the Act and make this information widely available and publicly displayed.

2. Designate officers responsible for providing each of these legal entitlements. For grievances against these entitlements the supervising officer would then be responsible for redressal. This information should also be made publicly available - on school walls or Panchayat walls.

3. Designate person or persons, who have been authorised by the State Governments hear grievances under RTE. These person/s would typically be from the department of education and available at district/block/panchayat level.

4. Specify a time schedule for disposing-off grievances, keeping the nature of the grievance in mind keeping 3 months as the maximum period as specified in Section 32 of the Act. Some grievances such as related to corporal punishment or admission must be disposed off in a shorter time frame

5. Overhaul the system of record management. Provide for a system of registering grievances at both the district and sub-district levels. The local authority may appoint an individual from the Education department to register grievances and issue receipts, ensuring that this officer is not the person against whom the grievance is being registered. The office should display number of complaints received, handled, status, action taken on a regular basis.

6. If the concerned grievance redressal authority considers that it is in the best interest of the complainant/child to preserve confidentiality, they may not disclose the identity of the complainant.

7. Registration of grievances should be permitted using different modes such as postal, telephone, internet, in person etc. A prescribed format may be provided, but should not be mandatory. A receipt of the grievance, giving the date, the time frame within which the grievance would be dealt with, and the contact details of the person responsible for dealing with the grievance, must form part of the process of registering grievances. The receipt should also contain details of whom to appeal in case the grievance is not dealt with in the time frame specified. A prescribed format could be prepared for the receipt as well.

8. If the grievance cannot be redressed at the level of the local authority it must be forwarded to the appropriate authority within a specified time frame.

9. A copy of the grievance should be sent to (and recorded at) the SCPCR or REPA as well and linked to the MIS.

10. Keeping the grievance and schedule in mind an investigation should be conducted involving an official of the Education Department/SSA management, senior to the one against whom the complaint is registered.

11. The process of investigation must allow the complainant as well as the accused to be heard, and should be conducted as far as possible publicly.

12. The result of the investigation must be conveyed to the complainant in writing and must recommend redressal by the officer charged with providing the entitlement within a specified time frame, in line with the schedule for redressal.

13. SCPCRs have been made the first appellate authority. Rules for how they are to discharge this function still need to be specified. Are they the final authority on grievances? How do their decisions impact the redressing officers/ department needs to be clarified.

14. The State Government should frequently review the nature of complaints that are being received and take corrective steps, so as to prevent hearing additional grievances in future. In other words, grievances monitoring should trigger policy/programme review at the systemic level.

8.2.3 Some implications of the above for SSA are:

(i) The Education Department should clearly allocate responsibilities of the SSA and local authorities in firming up the mechanism through which grievances will be addressed. Once such a mechanism is in place, it will be possible for the monitoring agencies also to direct complaints to the appropriate levels. For instance, if a case of corporal punishment is brought to the notice of NCPCR, it is important for NCPCR to know who to direct the issue to, or what is the system by which such a rights violation is/ will be dealt with and at what level.

(ii) Enforcing rights under RTE involves interdepartmental links covering schools established by other departments such as Tribal Affairs or Social Justice and Welfare. Grievances that arise from these schools will also have to be redressed by the State Education Department/SSA which is the appropriate government under the Act responsible for ensuring provision of elementary education irrespective of who runs the schools. Thus, the grievance redressal mechanism will have to include coordination with these departments as well.

(iii) Similar links will also have to be established for covering Specified Category Schools and Private schools.

8.3 What can NCPCR Monitor. - 8.3.1 Section 31 of the Act clearly states that the NCPCR, along with their State counterparts will be responsible for monitoring the rights of the child under the RTE Act. A closer look at what exactly is to be monitored reveals that NCPCR will have to look at children and their rights violations in two domains:

1. Children who are out-of-school, and

2. Children in school

8.3.2 For Children out-of-school, monitoring will involve looking at children:

(a) In Rural Areas (children residing in village)

(i) Never enrolled

(ii) Dropped out

(iii) Temporarily Absent

(b) In Rural areas (children residing outside village)

(i) Permanent migrants

(ii) Seasonal migrants

(iii) In Observation homes, shelter homes, hostels

(c) In Urban Areas

(i) Street/Homeless

(ii) Seasonal Migrants

(iii) In observation homes, shelter homes

(iv) Child labour

8.3.3 For Children in-school, monitoring will involve looking at the following issues:

(d) For Children in Government Schools

(i) Provision of neighbourhood school

1. Requisite number of classrooms

2. Appropriate PTR

3. School hours

4. Instructional hours of Teachers

5. Infrastructure

6. Appropriate of Infrastructure

(ii) Access to school

1. Physical

2. Social

(iii) Admission process

1. Denials

2. Capitation fee

3. Application fee

4. Screening procedure

5. Demand for Affidavits

6. Any time Admission

(iv) Entitlements

1. Tuition fee

2. Transport

3. Textbooks, notebooks, stationery

4. Uniforms

5. Library with books, newspapers, magazines

6. Sports equipment

7. Play material

8. Mid-day Meal

9. Special Training for age-appropriate education

10. Transfer Certificates

11. Completion Certificates

12. Other expenses

(v) Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

1. No annual Exam

2. No failure

3. No detention

4. Prescribed curriculum and books

5. Prescribed system of evaluation

6. Adherence to Constitutional values

(vi) Classroom Transaction

1. No discrimination

2. No corporal punishment

3. Appropriate Teaching methods

4. Appropriate Evaluation Systems

(vii) School Management Committee

1. Appointments as per rules

2. Regular meetings

3. Teacher Accountability

4. Preparation of School Development Plan

5. Other Responsibilities

(e) For Children in Private Aided Schools

(i) Reservation for children from Weaker Sections and Disadvantaged Groups in proportion with aid

(f) For Children in Private Unaided Schools

(i) 25% reservation for children from Weaker Sections and Disadvantaged Groups

(g) For Children in Specified category Schools [KV, Navodaya and Sainik schools]

(i) 25% reservation for children from Weaker Sections and Disadvantaged Groups.

8.3.4 In addition, as Section 31 states that safeguarding all of the children's rights is the responsibility of the Commission, the following areas of the Grievance Redressal System will also come under the purview of NCPCR:

(a) Registration of Complaints (b) Investigation of Complaints (c) Response to Complaints

(d) Appeal Process

8.4 Principles of Monitoring. - 8.4.1 The basic principles adopted by NCPCR in its approach to monitoring are as follows:

(i) That the most effective monitoring can and must be done at the local level by the rights-holders themselves, albeit through an institutionalised mechanism. The SMCs are in fact the ideal unit for a monitoring mechanism at the ground level. NCPCR will therefore gear its efforts towards trying to establish links with the SMCs in grounding a monitoring system. The SCPCRs must also build similar linkages.

(ii) Awareness generation of the entitlements of the Act and the ledressal mechanisms that exist is the first and necessary step towards monitoring. Therefore, creating that awareness would also be the part of the initial interventions undertaken by NCPCR in building an environment for concurrent monitoring involving the people. Collaboration with Government Departments and civil society groups is desirable to make this a well orchestrated and successful endeavour.

(iii) Capacity Building of SMCs and civil society groups that can assist NCPCR in monitoring and conveying feed back to NCPCR is also a basic plank of NCPCR's efforts in establishing a monitoring framework. Linking with the SSA structures, CRCs and BRCs would be useful in this exercise.

8.4.2 NCPCR has put the following systems into place to undertake its tasks in monitoring:

(i) RTE Division at NCPCR, focused on issues related to RTE. This Division located at New Delhi will coordinate all of NCPCR's monitoring activities.

(ii) State Representatives appointed by NCPCR to act as "eyes and ears" in the States. At least two persons have been appointed in each State to assist the NCPCR in receiving feedback from the States on the status of implementation of RTE. The State Representatives will also

(a) coordinate a network of civil society groups at the State level through which feedback on status o f i m p l e m e n t a t i o n c a n b e received and conveyed both to State governments and NCPCR; and

(b) initiated Dialogue with State governments on RTE.

(iii) Identify District and Block Resource Persons and organisations over a period of 2 years, who will be trained to assist the State Representatives and NCPCR in monitoring.

(iv) Initiate Social Monitoring (Audits) with the help of civil society groups, SMCs and citizens to help develop a system by which local structures (SMCs) and the people themselves can monitor the implementation of the programme and send period reports to the NCPCR/ SCPCR.

(v) Hold Public Hearings which have shown to be a powerful tool used by the NCPCR for highlighting violation of child rights in a public forum. Public Hearings focused on RTE will be used by the Commission to draw the attention of State Governments to issues that arise with respect to RTE.

(vi) Collaborate with Civil Society Networks as part of NCPCR's efforts to receive feedback from across the country. In particular, the following mechanisms will be employed through the networks:

(a) Use of Monitoring Checklists on RTE compliance

(b) Publicity and Awareness of Entitlements under RTE and Role of NCPCR

(c) SMC Training on monitoring

(vii) Complaints Management at NCPCR through

(a) a Complaints Management System [CMS] through which complaints are received and processed at NCPCR.

(b) helpline, which will allow citizens to call in and receive information and register complaints.

(c) both of the above will need to be closely linked with the implementation structure within Education Departments/SSA structures to be effective.

(viii) Research and Data Collection on specific issues related to monitoring and grievance redressal.

(ix) Recommendations to Central and State Governments, such as: (a) Guidelines on Corporal Punishment and Discrimination

(x) Legal Action.

(xi) RTE Compliance Reports from the States.

8.5 Summing Up. - 8.5.1 The Grievance Redressal and Monitoring aspects of RTE implementation are new areas that the SSA structure will have to contend with as it functions as the vehicle for delivering elementary education in the RTE phase. It involves dealing with new institutions such as the NCPCR/SCPCRs as well as the "local authorities", which have been given a role in monitoring and grievance redressal. It also involves developing links with other government departments such as Tribal Affairs, Social Justice and Labour. The success of the Act will depend greatly on how well these linkages are established by the SSA machinery. It may be worth pointing out that the sooner these linkages are established the better, as the momentum generated by the passage of the Act must not be lost. The coordinated working of all aspects of implementation, grievance redressal and monitoring will be essential to ensure that the pressure on enforcing rights is maintained.

9. Planning, Appraisal And Fund Flow Mechanisms - 9.1 Planning and Development of Comprehensive Work Plans

9.1.1 Approach. - The previous chapters, particularly those pertaining to Access, Equity, Quality and Participation in the context of RTE Act, adequately bring out the challenges in planning for UEE. The biggest challenge is to have an integrated approach to synthesise and integrate the wide variety of provisions, strategies and interventions, which go not only beyond the ambit of SSA but of the traditional functions of department of education as well. To address this challenge, planning in SSA needs a transformation and a shift in approach. This shift will be characterised by an understanding of the inherent relationship between access, equity, retention, and quality, and strengthening this relationship to derive benefits for common goal of UEE. Convergence for intersectoral support to address the complex issues of equity and exclusion would be its fundamental feature. Planning under SSA must therefore be exhaustive, and should cover:

(i) Areas for policy /systemic reforms in elementary education mandated by RTE

(ii) Areas for specific provisioning under SSA for access, quality, equity, school infrastructure, community mobilization, monitoring and supervision, management structures as envisaged under the RTE Act.

(iii) Areas for convergent action in collaboration with other schemes of the Central and State Governments for (i) and (ii) above, and

(iv) Areas for partnerships with NGOs and other civil society organisations.

9.1.2 For right based planning to succeed in its objectives, it is essential that SSA functionaries are able to visualise and reflect on different provisions, strategies and intervention as organically integrated leading to UEE. Universal access for example, should not be seen merely as opening of schools or providing hostels. Instead, it should be seen as a product /function of a range of diverse provisions, strategies and interventions, like, policy on opening of schools, mapping for physical and social access, opening of schools, providing adequate infrastructure of acceptable quality, availability of teachers, removing financial and procedural barriers. Planning for access would also extend to relevant child centred curriculum, text book, inclusive environment, participatory classroom processes with enabling and empowering assessment systems. Community support and participation, is also an integral part of planning for access which should eventually lead to ownership.

9.1.3 While some of the above strategies and interventions also support participation, retention and quality, planners for universal access would have to take all these factors into account in order to prepare a comprehensive outcome oriented plan for universal access.

9.1.4 Similarly, equity should not be seen only in reference to access or enrollment, to be merely addressed through isolated interventions, such as innovation funds and NPEGEL etc. Instead equity should be viewed as a cross cutting theme. Exclusion has multifaceted manifestations, and would require a comprehensive and coherent approach. Planning for equity would, therefore, encompass amalgamation of interventions leading to inclusion in access as well as participation in classroom processes, retention and quality. It would also necessitate planning for curriculum and textbook revision to address the inequity and exclusion therein. Planning for space and respect for child's gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, culture, language, geographic location, political milieu, familial occupation, economic status, special needs etc. within every component and facet of school education, all need to synthesise in a plan for universal equity.

9.1.5 Obviously, the intended approach shift to planning would materialise only if the AWP&B submitted under SSA are actually District Plans for UEE with not only integration of strategies and interventions of SSA but interplay, coherence and consolidation of objectives of access, equity and quality as well as intersectoral dimensions.

9.1.6 Formulation of State/UT Plans under SSA will be a comprehensive exercise covering all the above aspects, and will not be restricted to SSA provisioning alone. SSA will reflect the additional resource provision for UEE; its programme parameters have been revised in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act. Hence, it is imperative that the annual work plan & budgets, (AWP&B) formulated under SSA should factor in investments from relevant central schemes such as Teacher Education, Drinking Water Mission, Total Sanitation Campaign, Mid-day Meal and also from State schemes. In this way, the AWP&B can enable holistic planning for elementary education for implementation of the RTE Act (2009). The AWP&B of each district should also reflect all the investments made from different sources for elementary education.

9.1.7 The RTE Act mandates several substantive reforms that are systemic in nature. States/UTs would need to issue appropriate rules and government orders for implementing the entire gamut of provisions pertaining to, inter alia, duties of teachers; non-deployment of teachers in non-teaching duties except as specified in the Act; removal of all barriers to school admission including financial and procedural ones; ban on physical punishment and mental harassment; CCE, non-detention and non-expulsion of the student in the elementary grades etc. Thus, planning in SSA needs to be enriched by indicating the trajectory of planned systemic reforms in elementary education with timelines in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act (2009). Further, the Plan should also inform as to how the overwhelming need for capacity building of stakeholders at different levels will be met.

9.2 Community Based Planning Process. - 9.2.1 SSA envisages decentralised, need based and participatory planning in a bottom - up approach. Planning for UEE would inter alia focus on planning for universal access, equity, participation and quality.

9.2.2 A School Management Committee (SMC) will be constituted for all, except unaided, schools, as per Section 21 of the RTE Act. The SMC comprising parents, local authority and school teachers is expected to be the fulcrum of the school based planning process as envisaged in the RTE Act. The SMC will be required to prepare a School Development Plan [Section 21(2) (b)] that will form the basis for grants to be made to the school [Section 22(2)].

9.2.3 Ideally, the School Development Plan should emerge from a process of micro- planning undertaken in a participatory manner in respect of all habitations falling within the catchment area of the 'neighbourhood' school. The preparation of the School Development Plan may be undertaken by a core team, led by an SMC member from the village/habitation, and comprising selected community leaders, NGO representatives, Head Teacher, selected teachers and parents, especially parents of children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, and children with special needs.

9.2.4 The process of micro-planning would involve intensive interaction and dialogue with each household in the habitations falling with in the catchment area of the 'neighbourhood' school, and would include, inter alia the following steps: (i) environment building in the village/urban units through kala jathas, (ii) conduct of a household survey to identify children in each household, and their participation/ non-participation in school, (iv) preparation of a village/school education register, (v) preparation of a village map and its analysis to the people in a gram sabha, (vi) preparation of a proposal' for improved education facilities in the village. The steps mentioned above are suggestive and application of the same may need to be adjusted to the field situation e.g. in urban areas children may be attending a particular schools from outside the defined neighbourhood, or some children may be attending private aided or unaided schools in the vicinity. The SMC would need to factor in these locale specific variations while conducting the micro-planning exercise.

9.2.5 The School Development Plan is visualised as a comprehensive plan focusing on all aspects of school e.g. protection of children's rights, infrastructure, classroom processes, Inclusiveness, and, CCE etc. While maintaining this vision, the SDP would have to prioritise its needs in the light of urgency and the available resources etc. Stakeholders at various levels would have to be sensitised to this approach shift to school based planning. This would help them to appreciate the spirit behind the concept of SDP and to facilitate its formulation and implementation.

9.2.6 SMCs may require training to conduct micro-planning and household survey, prepare the SDP and ensure that all children are enrolled in schools, are attending and, track their progress till they complete elementary education. Besides, orientation on key principles of quality including, CCE, they may also need training in areas such as systematic development and maintenance of school infrastructure, so that the school meets the RTE requirements within three years of commencement of the Act. Also, capacities at State and local authority levels need to be strengthened for such holistic and convergent planning.

9.2.7 Following the micro-planning exercise, the blocks and districts should undertake an exercise to see which requirements can be fulfilled either by redeployment/rationalisation of existing resources or through other schemes of the Central/State Governments. For example, in many cases the expected PTR at school level can be ensured by rational teacher redeployment, instead of undertaking fresh teacher recruitment. The SDP may be appraised by the Cluster level units, in consultation with the Block teams. The District unit will appraise the Block level plans which will form the basis of the district plan. Due care should be taken to ensure that the demand for teachers, classrooms, etc. are as per the broad norms for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and RTE stipulations.

9.3 Annual Work Plan and Budgets (AWP&B). - 9.3.1 The RTE Act provides time lines for meeting certain standards that it has prescribed. For example, the Schedule of the Act provides a three year window for creating and developing the infrastructure as well as availability of teachers. Similarly, a five year timeline has been set for ensuring that all teachers are professionally qualified. Thus, States in their Plan shall reflect how they are planning to meet the timeline. Within these timelines, annual plans are to be prepared focusing on the gaps and the available resources (e.g. funds, adequately qualified and experienced human resource, capacities etc.) to meet these gaps. Similarly, in respect of quality and equity aspects, while maintaining vision and long term and medium term goals, States and districts shall set differentiated, need based annual targets and plan for achieving them.

9.3.2 The Annual Plans will, thus, be a need based prioritised Plan, based on a broad indication of resource availability to a district in a particular year. The National/ State Mission will appraise these Annual Plans and changes in keeping with resource availability could be effected by the National/State Mission. As stated earlier, these Plans have to be as per broad norms under SSA. The appraisal teams would ensure that planning is differentiated, need based as per norms and within the provisions of the RTE Act.

9.3.3 Preparation of Annual Plans requires creation of capacities at all levels. Besides the teams of resource persons from the National and State missions, efforts to develop State specific institutional linkage for planning support will also be made. Consultation with research institutions for undertaking State specific educational agenda has already been initiated. The same would be finalised in consultation with the State Governments. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan would require support of institutions of proven excellence for research, evaluation, monitoring and capacity building.

9.3.4 Quality and equity would be the overarching theme of planning and plan formulation in the overall perspective of child rights and entitlements. Thus, the focus should clearly be on the following;

•  Strategies to address discrimination against marginalised groups (Girls, SC, ST, Muslim minorities, CWSN) systemically and in all aspects including classroom practice, teacher behaviour, peer relations and use of school spaces and facilities.

•  Plan for undertaking curriculum reform to ensure that all children participate in the learning process; this would encompass age appropriate syllabus formulation, text book and supplementary material development, teacher training, interactive classroom processes, review of existing assessment systems vis-a-vis continuous and comprehensive evaluation system in consonance with the NPE 1986/92, NCF-2005 and the principles in section 29 of RTE Act.

9.3.5 The quality of the planning exercise will be greatly augmented by the involvement of CRCs and BRCs. CRCs and BRCs have to be carefully nurtured to provide capacity for effective planning by the SMCs. The starting point in any such exercise is for the States to accept the need for careful selection of personnel preferably from the existing governmental functionaries, so that a permanent pool of persons who understand elementary education is always available to the State within the sector. If adequate numbers of persons are not available from within the government system, persons may be selected and appointed on contract from the management costs provided under the SSA. The National /State Mission will have a role in role in selection of personnel in order to ensure objectivity in such processes.

9.3.6 The District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) have a Planning and Management unit. These units have to become fully operational. The effort at entering into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Governments under the scheme of Strengthening Teacher Education was a step in that direction.

9.3.7 As stated in earlier sections, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan encourages institutional capacity development at all levels. While support from MHRD for capacity building at State and district levels would continue with the help of institutions like NCERT, NUEPA and TSG, Ultimately, no amount of external supervision by capacity building teams or monitoring teams is a substitute for institutional capacity development at all levels. The CRCs, BRCs and DIETs have a large role in the preparation of perspective and Annual Plans and their systematic capacity development has to be a priority in programme implementation.

9.4 Use of DISE in Planning. - 9.4.1 While the SDP should be prepared based on the latest and most relevant data from school and from the community for the preparation of annual plans at the district level, the DISE data shall be used effectively. Every district shall have an EMIS unit. One of the main data systems of this unit will be the school based annual information system called District Information System for Education (DISE) and household survey reports. The data compiled through the aforesaid systems should be utilised for planning; DISE based information and analysis throwing light on infrastructure, access, retention, quality, teacher related issues shall be used in the process of planning and even monitoring, evaluation and mid-course corrections. Teachers' rationalisation, prioritisation of physical infrastructure and teachers' training issues may be addressed with the help of DISE data. DISE data also provides information on dropout, retention, promotion and transition rates. These flow rates should be used at the District and Block level to identify and pin point the problem areas affecting the flow rates. The analysed data should be shared at the local level which will help the planning to prepare effective and need based plans.

9.4.2 DISE data should encompass and collect information from all schools irrespective of its type, recognised or un-recognised, and Government, or Private. The States should move towards a unified system of data for elementary level, the on going parallel systems should amalgamate with DISE.

9.4.3 The National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA) has developed an Educational Development Index (EDI) to track progress of the States towards Universal Elementary Education (UEE), for Primary and Upper Primary levels as well as for a composite picture of Elementary Education. The States shall develop Educational Development Index (EDI) for the district and sub-districts levels. The EDI ranking will encourage the States and the districts to improve their performance and have a closer look at both the inputs and the outputs of the parameters that affect elementary education. Educational Development index (EDIs) for each district should be calculated and should be taken into cognizance while preparing the district AWP&Bs and their appraisals. The EDI for a district indicates the journey a district is to traverse to reach the overall goal of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) in the context of RTE. A study of the related parameters would provide adequate insight to prioritise the activities which will ultimately improve the elementary education scenario in the district/State. It is expected that EDI will also enable more effective targeting of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to the neediest regions.

9.5 Special Focus Districts. - 9. 5.1 While taking in to account the infrastructure gap and other disparities, SSA recognises the intra-regional, inter-State and inter-district disparities and is making efforts to address them. A crucial step in this direction is identification of Special Focus Districts (SFDs). These districts are identified based on indicators like concentration of out of school children, high gender gap, low retention rate and infrastructure gap as well as concentration of SC/ST/Minority population. School buildings and classrooms are sanctioned on need basis to these districts on priority, besides focused scrutiny during Appraisal. Classification of SFDs has been dynamic and contingent on context, need and priority. The same approach for classification will continue under SSA - RTE as well. States need to facilitate preparation of AWP&B for SFD in order to ensure that the needs and gaps are appropriately identified and strategies and interventions to address them are adequately planned for. After the PAB approvals, States need to continuously monitor implementation in SFDs.

9.6 Urban Planning. - 9.6.1 Urban areas have unique features like a high density of population, a heterogeneous community, extremely high cost/unavailability of land, slums, migrating population, homeless population, infrastructural barriers to school, urban deprived children etc. As such, planning in the context of RTE would also be somewhat different warranting relevant and more specific strategies especially while planning for school access (physical as well as social), special training, community participation, classroom processes, academic support and convergence etc.

9.6.2 The most critical factors while planning for neighbourhood schools in urban areas would be finalising relevant and need based criteria for neighbourhood school and interface between school and community. Experience has shown that in cities, the schools are mostly planned in the main city/municipal area whereas the communities from which most of the children come to these schools are increasingly pushed towards city fringes, slums and unauthorised localities. As a result, children studying in a government school in the municipal areas may actually be coming from far off places, and a mechanical identification of neighbourhood and habitation served by the school, the assessment of enrollment gaps, community needs, soliciting community participation may all fall out of context. Community participation, formation of SMCs and formulation of SDP would necessarily have to appreciate and address these very specific issues in order to prepared relevant and rights based plan. Land would necessarily have to be earmarked for school in all the upcoming colonies for ensuring neighbourhood school. In order to retain children from migrating groups and communities, class room processes would have to be inclusive enough to facilitate and integrate children with varying back grounds, languages and cultures as many children may belong not only to different districts but even to different states.

9.6.3 Similarly, Special Training would have to be planned very specifically to address the needs of urban deprived children like street and working children, rag-picking children, children of slum/pavement dwellers, children working in industry, household, tea shops, garages etc. as these children not only have lost certain number of years of schooling, they often are in desperate need of care and protection. As such the realisation of their right to education is contingent on their rights to life and protection from abuse. Effective convergence with municipal agencies and departments of labour (particularly to address issues of child labour) health, PHE, welfare, WCD etc as well as schemes like JNURM, ICPS as well as NGOs would be a necessary precondition for access and retention of urban deprived children.

9.6.4 Committed staff and experts would be required to undertake such focused and rigorous planning in SSA. For this to happen, urban planning cells in the SPOs and in metro cities as well as urban resource groups at state and at metro city levels would be a pre-requisite.

9.6.5 There are numerous examples of urban specific planning pertaining to different components that can be referred to for planning the implementation of RTE Act in urban areas. The City Level Plan of Action (CLPoA) a joint effort by government agencies and several NGOs in Kolkata undertook an impressive mapping and need assessment exercise followed by bridging interventions to facilitate access for urban deprived children. CLPoA experience can be a significant and useful reference for cities that intend to undertake micro-planning and mapping exercise. Similarly, successful integration of children belonging to disadvantaged groups with ordinary school going children as demonstrated through the experience of Loreto Convent in Sealdah is a good model to refer to. Rationalisation of schools undertaken some years ago in the cities of Jabalpur (M.P.) and Lucknow (U.P.) to address the gapes in access to school, and, operation of BRC & CRC for sub-district academic support and training in the city of Chennai (Tamil Nadu) are some more examples for urban specific planning.

9.6.6 Urban specific strategies should reflect in the entire district Annual Work Plan under SSA. The cities with large population (one million and above) shall make separate plans, while for other cities and urban areas, urban component shall be a separate chapter of every district plan. The State component too shall clearly focus on urban issues.

9.6.7 Major cities would need a dedicated programme management structure at city level to plan and implement SSA in the urban context. An urban planning cell established at State as well as at district level will facilitate focused planning and implementation. Further. Urban resource groups (URG) at State and district levels, consisting of representatives from different Government agencies, NGOs and other sections of civil society, would provide forums for consultations to improve urban planning and formulation of AWP&B.

9.7 Planning for Capacity Building of Education Administrators to Facilitate Implementation of the RTE Act. - 9.7.1 The RTE Act provides for children's right to free and compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education. It would be critical, therefore, to consider aspects that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from completing elementary education. Secondly, the Act provides for the child's right to education that is free from fear, stress and anxiety. There are several provisions in the Act, including for example, provisions prohibiting corporal punishment, detention and expulsion which need to be fore -fronted in S S A interventions to ensure that we move towards a system that provides a warm, welcoming and encouraging approach for children to learn. The most important aspect, however, is to ensure that the teaching learning process is free from stress and anxiety (Section 29), and SSA would need to ensure curricular reform in consonance with NCF- 2005. In the context of curricular reform, there are several testing and school grading systems in SSA, which need to be reviewed for an understanding of the extent to which these may demotivate children and lead to dropout. With reference to teachers, the Act lays down the academic responsibilities of teachers, and teacher accountability systems under SSA would need to ensure that children are learning and that their right to learning in an environment that is free from stress and anxiety is not violated. Also the Act provides that pupil teacher ratios (PTR) be maintained in each school, and teacher recruitment, transfer and deployment systems in the States would need re form, and educational administrators would need to be trained/ re-oriented. SSA provides for training of educational administrators at all levels and it would be necessary to undertake re-orientation and training of educational administrators to the "child rights." In this context, States would have to plan training design and processes for educational administrators in clear perspective.

9.8 Components of a District Plan. - 9.8.1 A District Plan is a plan for universal access though neighborhood schools, including 25% admission for children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in private schools as stipulated in the RTE Act. Some of the components and focus areas of such a plan are

(i) identification of out-of-school children and context specific strategy for special training for them.

(ii) a clear equity focus in all the activities under the plan. Every intervention must be sensitive to gender and social equity concerns.

(iii) a Plan for educational development of children belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities, Children with special needs and other disadvantaged groups.

(iv) need based context specific strategies for ensuring access, retention, participation and quality education for children

(v) a plan for quality education with strategies for capacity building of teachers and trainers; academic support structure, learning enhancement programmes, classroom processes and continuous Comprehensive evaluation and monitoring mechanism for academic aspects.

(vi) strategies for monitoring and eliminating physical punishment or mental harassment of children in the school, identification of designated authority for redressal of such complaints.

(vii) a Plan for school development encompassing all aspects of quality and equity with annual priorities and targets

(viii) the District AWP&B should adequately reflect the block specificities so as to make it more focused, relevant and need based.

9.8.2 The district plan should provide evidence of -

(a) interface with elected representatives at all levels.

(b) process based and norm based constitution of committees at each level.

(c) evidence of habitation/village based activities like Bal melas, Jathas, sports, Maa-beti sammelans, etc for community mobilisation and community ownership of the school development plan.

(e) institutional arrangements for decentralised decision making consultation with teachers.

(f) school mapping and micro-planning habitation wise/village wise/cluster wise/urban slum wise/ ward wise.

(g) availability of Joint Bank accounts in each school/VEC/School Management Committees to receive community contribution and to spend government grants.

(h) Large scale participation of women and other disadvantaged groups in the planning process.

(i) Incorporation of issues like local specific school timings, etc.

(j) Reflection of all investments in Plan and Non Plan being made in a particular district for elementary education.

9.8.3 The district plan should be based on a survey and subsequent analysis of

(a) available school facilities e. g. infrastructure, teachers, equipments & materials etc., including non- governmental educational institutions;

(b) 0-6 years age group children and facilities for their education and development;

(c) 6-14 years age group children through preparation of Education Registers; and

(d) In case, unrecognised schools are not able to conform to the norms stipulated in the RTE Act (2009) within the specified timeframe, children in these schools would need to be admitted to the nearest neighbourhood schools.

9.8.4 The district plan would also require an assessment of

(a) teacher training needs and survey of capacities for orientation and training with existing institutions;

(b) school-wise/habitation-wise additional school facilities, teachers, etc.;

(c) school wise/special training centre wise incentives of meals, scholarships, uniforms, free textbooks and notebooks, etc.;

(d) teaching-learning materials;

(e) monitoring and feedback System;

(f) available financial resources and priority of needs;

(g) Progress against school development plan; and

(h) Facilities for ECCE.

9.9 State Component Plan. - 9.9.1 For formulation of AWP&B of the State Component, SSA would provide support from within the 6% management cost as well as from the funds for Research, Evaluation, Monitoring and Supervision (on a per school basis) that is earmarked for state level activities. The State Component Plan including all activities to be conducted at the state level must be prepared with a clear budget. The cost of State level management and capacity building can be built into the State Component Plan. The State component has to be integrated with the needs of the districts across the state.

9.10 Appraisal of District Plans. - 9.10.1 The National /State Mission will undertake appraisal of the District Plans with the assistance of resource teams constituted by the operational support unit of the National/State Mission. These resource persons will be fully oriented for undertaking the task of appraisal. The Appraisal Missions will imdertake regular visits to districts in order to monitor the quality of preparatory activities. The cost of the Appraisal teams will be fully borne by the National/ State Mission. The monitoring and operational support teams at the National/ State level Mission will constitute the Appraisal teams.

9.10.2 Appraisal teams will be jointly constituted by the National and the State level Mission. One of the National Mission nominees could be a representative of the research institution that undertakes responsibility for that State. The National Mission will circulate a list of resource persons on the basis of past experience gathered under different educational projects like DPEP, Lok Jumbish Project and SSA. The nominees of the State Mission will also have to be approved by the National Mission. A checklist of activities will be prepared for the guidance of the Appraisal Team. For non-governmental representatives in appraisal teams, besides the TA/DA as admissible for Government servants, a modest honorarium will be available. The salient features of the appraisal process include the following:

•  To be conducted jointly by the Central and State government representatives in the initial phase, along with experts representing NUEPA/NCERT/SCERT/S1EMAT and other resource organisations

•  States to undertake appraisal after sufficient institutional capacities are developed through networking with national level institutions

•  Assessment to ensure that mobilisation has been the basis of planning and plan reflects participatory planning process

•  Level of community ownership to be the critical factor in appraisal of plans

•  Participation of NGOs, Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies

•  Assessment of community contribution and participation in school activities

•  Assessment of institutional arrangements for decentralized decision making and capacity building in local resource institutions.

•  Assessment of involvement of teachers in the planning exercise

•  Assessment of adherence to spirit and stipulations of RTE Act.

•  Assessment of systemic reforms mandated by RTE Act

•  Assessment of convergence with relevant Central/State schemes for education and welfare

9.11 Allocation of Resources as per Approved Plans and Fund Flow. - 9.11.1 The allocation of resources will depend on the following: preparation of District Elementary Education Plans and their appraisal; commitment of the State government with regard to the State share; performance of the State Government regarding resources made available earlier; institutional reforms in States to facilitate decentralized management of education and as per RTE requirements; reports of supervision teams regarding the quality of programme implementation; and availability of financial resources in a particular year. The actual allocation of resources will depend on all these factors. It is likely that districts with poor infrastructure will require more resources.

9.11.2 However, the release will also be performance linked. If an educationally backward district does not utilise the resources in the manner intended, it is unlikely to continue to receive a priority.

9.11.3.The expenditure on elementary education of a State/UT has to be maintained at the level of expenditure in 1999-2000-the year of commencement of SSA in the State. The State share for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has to be over and above the expenditure already being incurred at the 1999-2000 level in a particular State. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will not substitute State funding for elementary education. In fact, it is expected to encourage States to invest more on elementary education along side a higher allocation by the Central Government. The State level Implementation Society for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will certify that the level of investments are being maintained in the State, at the time of seeking further allocation of resources from the Central Government. The NLM will also monitor expenditure on elementary education. TSG will provide professional support for regular monitoring of expenditure on elementary education.

9.11.4 For procedure for Release of Funds, SSA is conceived as a partnership between the Central and the State/UT Governments. The procedure for release of funds incorporates this idea of a partnership. Under the SSA programme, the districts had prepared their proposals through a community owned Pre- Project phase, broadly based on the Framework for Implementation. The State level Implementation Society for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan forwarded these proposals to the National Mission of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for release after appraisal by a joint team. The Central Government released the funds directly to the State Implementation Society. The State Governments were required to give writ ten commitments regarding their contribution towards the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

9.11.5 After preparation of the District Elementary Education Plans, the perspective as well as the Annual Plans will be jointly appraised by a team of experts constituted jointly by the National and the State level implementation Society. The Governing Council of the National Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission has empowered the Project Approval Board under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the department to approve the Annual Plan on the basis of the appraisal report, the recommendation of the State Implementation Society, the availability of Central Plan funds, and the commitment of the State Government regarding financial resources. There commendation of the State level Implementation Society must also be accompanied by a commitment of the State Government to transfer its share to the State Society within thirty days of the receipt of the Central contribution, as per the approved sharing arrangement. The release of the first instalment to the State/UT will be processed after receipt of these written commitments. The appraisal and approval of Plans should be completed in time for the first instalment, to meet the proposed expenditure of the first six months, to be released by 15 April.

9.11.6 There would be two instalments each year: one in April for expenditure between April and September and the second in September for expenditure between October to March. The Government of India would release an ad-hoc grant in April every year. (Ref. PAB decision of 88th Meeting held on 6.12.2006) This will be subsequently adjusted based on the approval of AWP&B for the Year. The second instalment will be based on the progress in expenditure and the quality of implementation. The utilisation certificates from the districts to the States should be submitted as and when the funds are utilised but before the release of further instalment. The Utilisation Certificates from the State to the National Mission for funds released in the previous year would become due at the time of the release of the second instalment in the subsequent year.

9.12 Financial provision for Management. - 9.12.1 SSA provides for Management Costs up to 6 per cent of the total programme cost. For small districts in the States of the North East Region and Union Territories, SSA provides up to Rs. 40 lakh subject to the overall ceiling of 6 percent being maintained at the national level over the project period. The Management Costs can be used for engaging experts for specific tasks and specific periods, data collection and DISE operationalisation and maintenance, office expenses like stationary, telephone, fax, photocopiers consumables, postage, POL, vehicle hiring, TA/DA of functionaries, cost of persons engaged on contract basis for the programme duration, recurring contingent and miscellaneous costs. For specific tasks, experts may be hired for a given time frame, to provide support to the mainstream educational management structure. Before hiring experts, it will be mandatory for districts/'States to assess the existing strength. There would be areas like MIS, Planning, Pedagogy, Teacher Training, Research and Evaluation, Media and communication activities, Gender Sensitization, Civil Works, Financial Management, Access, Equity and Special Training that may require infusion of experts. The actual requirement would depend on the need determined on the basis of an assessment of the existing structure. These professionals must work to strengthen capacities of the mainstream personnel. Adequate, experienced and trained management structure is necessary at all level for the effective implementation of the programme.

9.12.2 Upto 2% is available for Learning Enhancement Programme within the ceiling of 6% of the Management Cost. Further, up to 0.5% of district outlay may be utilised for community participation and mobilisation campaign provided that the management cost and community mobilization, LEP together does not exceed 6% of the total outlay subject to the conditions prescribed in the norm.

Appendix-I

Norms For Interventions

Access And Retention