'SSA fails to provide quality education'
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has failed to provide quality education to a wide cross section of children, the Planning Commission has said.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the flagship programme to universalise elementary education, has failed to provide quality education to a wide cross section of children, the Planning Commission has said.
"The SSA could not really address the question of quality of elementary education because the programme has not yet addressed systemic reforms. The objective should be towards equalising opportunities and life chances for all children," the Commission said.
In the absence of good quality primary schools, children from better-off sections prefer private schools, the number of which is fast increasing across the country, the Commission said in a note that suggested transforming the SSA into a "National Mission for Quality Elementary Education".
However, the note, circulated at a full Commission meeting this week, said that the SSA has clearly succeeded in bringing a large number of children to school.
It said that though the SSA brought an additional 25 million children into the educational system during the Xth Plan period, the drop-out rate at the elementary level remained as high as 50.8 per cent, a decline of only 3.81 percentage points when compared to 2001-02.
The SSA needs to ensure minimum norms and standards for a school that must be accessible to all children as a matter of right, and also address access, quality and equity holistically through a systematic approach. There is a need to ensure that private schools also come up to the required minimum norms and standards, the note said.
"The SSA could not really address the question of quality of elementary education because the programme has not yet addressed systemic reforms. The objective should be towards equalising opportunities and life chances for all children," the Commission said.
In the absence of good quality primary schools, children from better-off sections prefer private schools, the number of which is fast increasing across the country, the Commission said in a note that suggested transforming the SSA into a "National Mission for Quality Elementary Education".
However, the note, circulated at a full Commission meeting this week, said that the SSA has clearly succeeded in bringing a large number of children to school.
It said that though the SSA brought an additional 25 million children into the educational system during the Xth Plan period, the drop-out rate at the elementary level remained as high as 50.8 per cent, a decline of only 3.81 percentage points when compared to 2001-02.
The SSA needs to ensure minimum norms and standards for a school that must be accessible to all children as a matter of right, and also address access, quality and equity holistically through a systematic approach. There is a need to ensure that private schools also come up to the required minimum norms and standards, the note said.
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