Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar launched the ‘SamagraShiksha’ - an integrated scheme for school education extending support to States from pre-school to senior secondary levels for the first time in New Delhi on Thursday. The Scheme is a paradigm shift in the conceptual design of school education by treating ‘school’ holistically as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary and senior secondary levels.
Speaking on this occasion, Javadekar said that in keeping with Prime Minister’s commitment of providing of ‘Sabko Shiksha, Achchi Shiksha’, the HRD Ministry has taken a landmark step and completely overhauled the existing schemes in school education. This scheme focuses on improving quality of education at all levels by integrating the two T’s – Teachers and Technology.
The Minister said that earlier the budget on the three schemes ie SSA, RMSA and Teacher Education was Rs. 28,000 crore in 2017-18. But the budget outlay on the new scheme will be now Rs. 34,000 crore in 2018-19 and increased to Rs. 41,000 crore in 2019-20. He said that about one million schools will get library grant of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 to strengthen the libraries to ensure that “Padhega Bharat, Badhega Bharat”.
He further said every school will get sports equipment under the SamagraShiksha, at the cost of Rs. 5000 for Primary, Rs. 10,000 for Upper Primary & up to Rs. 25,000 for SSC & HSC schools to inculcate & emphasize relevance of sports to realise the dream of “Khelega India, Khilega India”.
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) will be expanded from Class 6-8 to Class 6-12 with allocation of Rs. 4385.60 crores in 2018-19 & Rs. 4553.10 crores in 2019-20 to fulfil PM’s commitment to Beti Bachao, BetiPadhao.
The scheme will build on the grade-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes and the largest National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted in 2017-18 to strategize district level interventions for improving quality of education. This approach would help to shift the focus of student learning from content to competencies. The Scheme envisages active participation of all stakeholders especially the parents/guardians, School Management Committee (SMC) members, community and the state functionaries towards the efforts to ensure quality education to children.
Scheme will focus on strengthening this crucial pillar by making SCERTs and DIETs the nodal agencies for teacher training. These institutions would be strengthened to emphasize the integration of in-service and pre-service training structures in States to make it need-focused and dynamic. This would strengthen the quality of teaching in schools across levels.
To enable reaping the benefits of technology and widening the access of good quality education across all States and UTs and across all sections of the Society.“DIKSHA”- the national digital platform for teachers would put high quality teaching learning resources for ready use of teachers. The Scheme will support ‘Operation Digital Board’ in all secondary schools over a period of 5 years, so as to enhance the use of digital technology through smart classrooms, digital boards and DTH channels. The Digital initiatives like ShaalaKosh, Shagun, ShaalaSaarthi will be strengthened.
The Minister also unveiled the brochure and website of the SamagraShiksha scheme. The brochure gives an insight into the major features of the scheme and how the scheme focuses on improving quality of education, enhancing the Learning Outcomes and using technology to empower children and teachers.
The Website provides details about the Scheme for information of the States/UTs, teachers, children, institutions and public at large. It details out the interventions for which financial support is provided under the Scheme to States and UTs. All notifications, correspondences and circulars are uploaded on the website for ready reference of States and UTs. An online Project Monitoring System is linked to the website which measures progress against targets and monitors processes of implementation of various interventions of the Integrated Scheme.
