Promising EFA Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region

INDIA India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

UNESCO Bangkok Office Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110, Thailand Email: [email protected] Website: www.unesco.org/bangkok Tel: +66-2-3910577 Fax: +66-2-3910866 CASE STUDY INDIA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

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iv Table of Contents

Acronyms vii Preface viii Acknowledgements ix Executive Summary 1 1. Introduction 7 2. Overview of the Study 8 3. EFA Achievements and Challenges 10 3.1 Early Childhood Care and Education ...... 11 3.2 Universal Primary Education ...... 12 3.3 Youth and Adult Skills ...... 13 3.4 Improvement in Adult Literacy ...... 14 3.5 Gender Equality in Access to Basic Education ...... 14 3.6 Improving the Quality of Education ...... 16 4. The First Decade of EFA 17 5. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Programme 21 5.1 SSA Phase I (2003–2007) ...... 22 5.2 SSA Phase II (2007–2010) ...... 24 5.3 SSA After the Right to Education Act ...... 26 5.4 Achievements and Limitations ...... 26 6. Partnerships in the Implementation of the SSA 34 6.1 Role of CSOs in SSA Implementation in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh ...... 35 6.2 Partnerships in Rajasthan during the SSA Period ...... 36 6.3 Partnerships in Madhya Pradesh during the SSA period 45 6.4 Key features of the partnerships during the SSA in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh . . 53 Lessons from the SSA Programme 57 Annex: Socioeconomic background – Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh 59 References 62

v List of Figures Figure 1: Attendance ratios for children aged 6–10 and 11–13 (1995–2010) 12 Figure 2: Gross attendance ratios at primary and upper-primary levels (1995–2010) ...... 13 Figure 2: Youth literacy rates (1991–2015) ...... 13 Figure 4: Adult literacy rates (1995–96 to 2009–10) ...... 14 Figure 5a: Gender differences in attendance rates of children aged 6–10 (1995–96 to 2009–10) 15 Figure 5b: Gender differences in attendance rates of children aged 11–13 (1995–96 to 2009–10) 15 Figure 5c: Gender differences in attendance rates of children aged 14–17 (1995–96 to 2009–10) . . . 15 Figure A1: Literacy rates in Rajathan, by gender (1981–2011) ...... 61 Figure A2: Literacy rates in Madhya Pradesh, by gender (1981–2011) 61 Figure A3: Literacy rates in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (1981–2011) 61

List of Tables Table 1: Enrolment in pre-primary schooling facilities (millions) Year 12 Table 2: Attendance rates of youth (2009–10) 14 Table 3: Proportion of youth receiving or received formal vocational training (2009–10) ...... 14 Table 4: Education projects in India (1987–1994) ...... 18 Table 5: Progress in education in India (2000–01, 2005–06 and 2009–10) 27 Table 6: Number of out-of-school children (2002–03 to 2010–11) ...... 27 Table 7: Decreasing social and gender gaps (2000–2010) ...... 29 Table 8: Learning Achievements of Class 5 Children, 2002 and 2008 29 Table 9: Pupil-teacher ratios (2000–01 and 2010–11) ...... 30 Table 10: Public expenditure on elementary education, in INR millions (2003–2011) ...... 32 Table 11: Percentage distribution of SSA expenditure (2003–2010) ...... 32 Table 12: Major initiatives involving government collaboration with CSOs in Rajasthan – pre-SSA . . 36 Table 13: Major initiatives involving government partnership with CSOs in education in Madhya Pradesh – pre-SSA period ...... 46 Table A1: Socio-economic indicators in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and India ...... 59

vi Acronyms

ABL Activity based learning NUEPA National University of Educational Planning and AIE Alternate and innovative education Administration ASER Annual Status of Education Report PESLE Programme for Enrichment of School Level Education BRC Block Resource Centre PRI Panchayat Raj Institution CCE Continuous and comprehensive evaluation PTA Parent-teacher association CRC Cluster Resource Centre PTR Pupil-teacher ratio CSO Civil society organization REI Rajasthan Education Initiative CWSN Children with special needs SC Scheduled Castes DIET District Institute of Education and Training SIDA Swedish International Development Agency DFID Department for International Development SIS State Implementation Society DPEP District Primary Education Programme SMC School management committee EC European Commission SPK Shiksha Protsahan Kendra ECCE Early childhood care and education SSA Sarva Shiksha Abiyan EFA Education for All ST Scheduled Tribes EGS Education Guarantee Scheme SWRC Social Work and Research Centre GDI Gender Development Index TRSG Technical Resource Support Group GeSCI Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization GER Gross enrolment ratio UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund GoI Government of India HDI Human Development Index HSTP Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme ICICI Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India ICT Information and communication technology IFIG ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth INR Indian Rupee JRM Joint Review Mission KGBV Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development MOU Memorandum of understanding MVF Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation MWCD Ministry of Women and Child Development NCERT National Council of Education, Research and Training NCF National Curriculum Framework NPE National Policy on Education NGO Non-governmental organization NSSO National Sample Survey Office

vii Preface

There has been significant progress towards the six EFA goals, however, all available indicators are pointing to a bitter reality that EFA will be an “unfinished business”. The 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report has concluded that with less than two years until the 2015 deadline, the world is not on track. Amidst the many challenges, many countries have demonstrated how achievements can be made with the commitment from government, expanded partnerships, innovative thinking and efficient use of resources. There are lessons to be learned.

At the Global EFA Meeting (GEM) in Paris in November 2012, Ministers, heads of delegations, leading officials of multilateral and bilateral organizations, and senior representatives of civil society and private sector organizations, including those from Asia-Pacific, committed to the “Big Push”. The GEM participants called upon governments and EFA partners to identify successful initiatives and innovative practices and to adapt, replicate, or scale-up such initiatives to speed up EFA progress.

Subsequently, the 13th Regional Meeting of National EFA Coordinators: The Big Push, which was organized in Bangkok, Thailand on 26-27 February 2013 as a follow up to the GEM, underscored the need for increased knowledge on innovative and creative ways of addressing EFA challenges so as to inform policy-making and programme development on EFA. To this end, the meeting requested UNESCO Bangkok to document innovative approaches and effective practices from countries that have succeeded in transforming EFA goals into concrete realities and to disseminate this knowledge for the benefit of all countries.

The Asia-Pacific region is full of successful initiatives, with stories of good practices in almost every country. Over the years, UNESCO has documented these practices to share them with a wider audience. These five country case studies provide in-depth understanding of promising initiatives that are critical in EFA acceleration in Asia-Pacific. While this research attempts to gather evidence on successful initiatives that have helped countries to accelerate EFA progress, it should be noted that these case studies are some examples selected from a vast pool of equally promising EFA practices in this region.

viii Acknowledgements

The Country Case Studies on Promising EFA Practices in Asia-Pacific have been published with the support from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT).

We would like to thank the following experts and their respective institutes for preparing the five country case studies on promising EFA practices in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines respectively: Dr. Manzoor Ahmed, Mahmuda Akhter, Dr. Anisuzzaman, and Mahfuzar Rahman Jewel of the Institute of Child and Human Development (ICHD), Bangladesh; Sitha Chhinh, Sarom Mok, Chhang Roth and Youhan Hor of the Royal Phnom Penh University (RUPP), Cambodia; Anuradha De and Meera Samson of Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD), India*; Dr. Ella Yulaelawati, MA, Ph.D, Dr. Faisal Madani, M.Sc. Ed, Aryo Radiyo Sawung, M.Ed, Cecep Somantri, S.S, and Dr. Suryadi Nomi of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) of the Republic of Indonesia; and Elaissa Marina Mendoza and the Research Studies Unit of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH).

Thank you to the following colleagues who provided their support in liaising with the respective governments and institutes in the preparation of these country case studies on promising EFA practices: Anwar Alsaid, Mee Young Choi and Nurhajati Sugianto, UNESCO Office in Jakarta; Santosh Khatri, UNESCO Office in Phnom Penh; Kiichi Oyasu and Shereen Akhter, UNESCO Office in Dhaka; Alisher Umarov and Girish Joshi, UNESCO Office in New Delhi; and Shailendra Sigdel, UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) New Delhi Cluster Office.

Our appreciation also goes to reviewers of the case studies: Min Bista, Gwang-Chol Chang, David Clarke, Ginger Gruters, Hyunjeong Lee, Sun Lei, Tanvir Muntasim, Malisa Santigul, Nurhajati Sugianto, Bertrand Tchatchoua, Nyi Nyi Thaung and Marlene Cruz Zegarra.

* The authors wish to thank a number of key persons in Delhi, Jaipur and Bhopal who met with them for this study, and shared their understanding and experience of the education sector in India. CORD researchers Aurora Bardoneschi, Chander Shekhar Mehra and Dr Tunga Tarodi provided valuable research assistance. The paper also benefits from the interviews and analysis done by Anuradha De in collaboration with Professor Christopher Colclough for a DFID study on “The Emergence and Evolution of SSA”.

ix 3:Goal 2: Goal 1: Goal India’s current status, as of 2013, in terms of the EFA Goals is summarized below. India’s major achievements have in been Goal 2and Goal 5. While India has shown progress in all six of the EFA goals, the extent of progress in each varies. towards achieving the EFA Goals has remarkable. been achievement levels in many areas. In the context of such challenges, India’s progress since then low had India’s of population, one-third than more constituted which communities, disadvantaged challenges had arisen as aresult of extreme inequality in society. Education indicators showed that girls and women, and there was much disparity in education levels states. between Particular existed in much of India in the mid-1980s. In many states literacy rates were low, especially among newThe education strategies and policies were in response to the grim education situation that the goal of free and compulsory education for all children aged 6–14. were re-examined and were reframed in the National Policy on Education, leading to the setting of Education for All held in Jomtien in 1990. In 1986, India’s national educational goals and strategies India’s focus on elementary education and literacy goals precedes the World Conference on has embarked on the documentation of such practices. in the region and beyond can learn from these experiences. It is in this context UNESCO Bangkok initiatives that have helped governments accelerate EFA progress at the country level. Governments studies from the Asia-Pacific region. Asia-Pacific The region is full of successful and innovative UNESCO Bangkok with support from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust as (JFIT) one of five country case This case study on promising practices in Education for All (EFA) in India was commissioned by Executive Summary

towards this goal. has limited, been however. Alack of reliable data to limits precisely efforts measure progress toexpected near be 1. Expansion of participation in secondary and vocational education achieve ayouth literacy rate per of cent 90 by 2015. In addition, the gender index parity is Literacy rates of youth have increased remarkably since the 1980s and India to expects access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable 16–17 schooling. of years eight completed had required eight years of education, however. In 2007–08, only per 68 cent of children aged of 2013 nearly 95 per cent are in school. Not all enrolled children are able to complete the While only around 50 per cent of children in the 6–14 age group were in school in 1991, as quality. education good of primary those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory and circumstances difficult in children 2015 by girls, that Ensuring particularly children, all Nevertheless, alarge number of children are not enrolled in any pre-primary facilities. 2002 and 2011. Formal schools, particularly private ones, also provide pre-primary education. Centres. Enrolment and the number of Anganwadi Centres more than doubled between Early childhood care and education in India is provided for children aged 3–5 in Anganwadi for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. and improvingExpanding comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially 1 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 2 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Societies (SIS). At the same time, internally funded micro-initiatives were launched. specific Some of them blocks. were implemented through independent State Implementation coverage. In contrast to earlier projects, these actions were targeted towards specific districts or which as started pilot interventions in one or more locations and later expanded their geographical followingThe years saw emergence the various of centrally-sponsored externally-funded, projects, responsibilities. its of education of This management. influenced structure the local governments were given statutory recognition, and school education was included in the list India for the first time. Other changes in 1994 were the Constitutional amendments through which parallel developments, a significant amount of aid resources were directed at primary education in their aid commitments to primary education (Jomtien Conference). aconsequence As of these social sector. Internationally, this was also the time when the aid agencies were keen to increase role, such as the large fiscal deficit in the early nineties leading to expenditure reductions in the the National Policy of Education in 1986. Other changes in the macro environment played acritical In the Indian context, there was anew emphasis on elementary education after the formulation of education sector in the states. two CSOs and with individuals in the government and United Nations who have experience in the studyThe draws on secondary sources, supplemented by discussions with leaders of prominent programme. the in roles significant had organizations set up as foundations, as well as those that are of profit-making part companies; and private sector organizations (CSOs), including those with their origins groups non-profit in voluntary the sector; implementation and monitoring of this multifaceted programme was amammoth task. Civil society SSAThe was acollaborative of the central, effort state and local governments. planning, The civil and society assess the contributions of these partnerships to the SSA programme. mainThe focus of this study is to examine partnerships in these states government between and examines the implementation of the SSA programme in states: two Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. flagship programme aiming to achieve universal primary education. In particular, this case study This study examines Shiksha the Sarva Abhiyan (SSA), the “Education for All Movement”, India’s skills. have revealed slow progress towards better learning outcomes in terms of literacy and numeracy surveys (Annual Status of Education 2006 and National Report Achievement Survey Class V2012) Improvements in the quality of education have limited, been in spite Various of avariety of efforts. Goal 6: Goal 5:Goal 4: Goal Improving all of the aspects quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that numeracy and essential life skills. recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, levels are almost equal at present, but amarked difference persists at the secondary stage. past 25 years. attendance The rates of males and females at the primary and upper-primary gapThe male between and female attendance rates has declined significantly over the to and achievement in basic education quality. of good gender equality in education by 2015, with afocus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access Eliminating gender disparities education and by secondary 2005, in primary and achieving is likely to achieved be by 2015. Asignificant gender gap remains, however. adultThe literacy rate has increased significantly, and the targeted increase of 50 per cent women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. Achieving a50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for the SSA management structure was integrated with the state education structure in some states. new On the Act. basis of their thereport, government broadened the SSA framework. In this period, Development established a committee to suggest necessary follow-up action in SSA in light of the Education (the Act “Right to Education was passed. Ministry The Act”) of Human Resource SSA after the Right to Education In Act: August 2009, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory outcome indicators that – is, improving learning achievements levels and reducing dropout rates. etc.). In the second phase, the programme concentrated more on monitoring and improving In the earlier phase, SSA focused on planning, implementation and monitoring of inputs (textbooks, quality. and retention access, equitable of SSAThe programme was extended until 2011–12 with a slightly altered focus to meet the challenges the SSA goals. Moreover, although school participation had increased, retention was still a problem. and targets equity at the primary level was remarkable, but additional was to needed achieve effort SSA mid-term The Phase II: assessment of SSA in showed 2005–06 that progress towards access the SSA through Joint Review Missions (JRM), from January 2005. regular monitoring, school-level monitoring a and accountability mechanism was introduced into accessible decentralized education management information from wasApart system developed. village-level education committees. To facilitate decentralized planning and monitoring, an easily- directly to the SIS and then to district offices. School-community linkages were set up through determined through the process of decentralized planning. Funds were transferred from the centre through a“bottom-up” approach starting from the school level. annual The financing needs were monitoring, and the focus was on schools and communities. District annual plans were made SSA Phase At I: the core of this programme were decentralized planning, implementation and the SSA were reviewed and revised. second phase of the SSA was extended until 2011–12. In these years, the objectives and strategies of Following the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education in Act 2009, the co-funded by the central government, the state governments and donor partners. received external support in phases two of three years each. Over aperiod of ten years the SSA was programme the From (EC). Commission 2004, European the (DFID) and Development International sufficient resources, it sought assistance from the World Bank, the United Kingdom Department for Initially the SSA was to funded be only from domestic resources, but when the could GoI not mobilize the earlier goal of five years. of India, and the target was to ensure all children participated in eight years of education in place of SSAThe initiative was different from earlier projects as it was to implemented be across all districts similar to EFA goals 2, 5and 6, were adopted. central and state government initiatives in elementary education. Three major time-bound targets, provide awide but convergent framework for decentralized planning and implementation of all projects informed the design of this new programme. intention The of the programme was to umbrella programme absorbing all individual Evaluations education projects. earlier of education In 2001–02, the Indian government launched the SSA programme at the national level as asingle later approaches. wide sector external agencies. From the donors’ point of view, the DPEP had many of the essential features of 1993–94, the first large-scale multi-state education programme, which was funded by several variousThe projects were managed under the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) in 3 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 4 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan prior to the SSA programme and prior partnerships. CSOs, however. the This political reflects contexts as well as the evolution of education in the states SSAThe programme took somewhat different routes in the states two in terms of partnerships with since then, and because they both had arich history of CSOs working with the state government. states during the 1990s and have received relatively large shares of central government assistance These states were selected for the case study as they were on the list of educationally disadvantaged of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh during the implementation of the SSA programme. notedAs above, this case study examines the partnerships CSOs between and the state governments surveys. household through children of-school Institutions were given responsibility the community of mobilization and identification the out- of committees were given the responsibility of school-level planning and monitoring. Panchayati Raj level Education Committees with School Management Committees (SMCs). These school-based to Education this Act, process was made more uniform and all states replaced their community- in ensuring teacher accountability and general school functioning. After the enactment of the Right SSA priorities. Community-based bodies were formed in all villages, which played an important role education increased dramatically over this period and the composition of expenditure changed with planning led to amore efficient process of financial allocation and utilization. Expenditures on decade, more slowly in some states than in others. These system reforms, along with decentralized Systemic changes in finance, administration and management in schooling took place over the SSA training and student learning achievements. education. Several state-specific initiatives were launched, which focused on improving teacher National Curriculum Framework in 2005, which emphasized the to need provide useful and relevant changes were introduced. States began the process of revising their in light textbooks of the new improvement. With a renewed focus on the quality of education in the second phase of SSA, several Quality: support. targeted ongoing required still groups vulnerable enrolled of children proportion The frombenefits. disadvantaged communities increased, although brought school from exclusion and classroom the in discrimination eliminating on emphasis The Equity: children, and the number out-of-school was reported as 3million in 2010–11. primary classes in the second phase. There was asharp decline in the number of out-of-school period. This growth was higher for primary classes in the first phase of SSA and higher for upper- Access: below: summarized are SSAThe programme achieved a great deal. achievements The in terms of access, and equity quality important consultative role in the process of implementing the Right to Education Act. with members that had arich experience of working in the education sector prior to SSA played an and building capacity of members of Panchayati Raj Institutions and Education Committees. CSOs in teaching training modules to build capacity of teachers, involvement in community mobilization collaborationsThe were for various of service provision types within the programme, innovations This period saw a change in the number of CSOs entering and type into partnerships with the State. SSAThe framework actively encouraged CSOs to contribute to the achievement of the SSA goals. Over time, the SSA approach shifted from being input-based to being process-based. The numberThe of schools and enrolment increased sharply over the SSA implementation The mid-termThe assessment of SSA revealed relatively progress poor in terms of quality were signed with organizations outside the state such as Pratham and the Naandi Foundation, as Madhya Pradesh government set up a“Partnership Cell” to facilitate this. Partnership agreements in response to the to need meet the SSA goals and to bring in more funding to achieve this. The as in Rajasthan. Post-2005, the government decided to expand itspartnerships with CSOs. This was CSOs had afairly limited role to play in Madhya Pradesh during the first years of the SSA programme, launched in 1997 as adirect consequence of the Lok Sampark Abhiyan. Guarantee Scheme (EGS), which earned a Commonwealth Innovation Award for the state, was and visits to every home to find out which children were out of school, and why. Education The partnerships with CSOs took various forms, including implementing the Lok Sampark Abhiyan partnerships, enabled considerable progress towards achieving the EFA goals. Prior to the SSA, wereThese experts brought into the process, policy and combined with the government-CSO for academic decisionsbody were members whose and education educationists. practitioners A major initiative in the State of Madhya Pradesh was the setting up of an apex policy-making critical, particularly in itswork in government middle schools and primary schools. externally-funded projects, and the SSA built on this. contribution The of the CSO Eklavya was 14 districts. Through DPEP, the government gained experience and expertise in handling large implemented in 21 of the state’s 42 districts during phases 1and 2of DPEP, and later in another Madhya Pradesh: In this state, DPEP played acritical role in the 1990s, as this programme was experienced CSOs in the process of educational reform. these changes. UNICEF played amajor role over this period by facilitating the involvement of changes on alarge scale in time ashort period, and it relied on the support of CSOs to implement of bringing about transformative changes required by the state The Act. had to introduce some With the enactment of the Right to Education in Act 2009, the state had to face the challenge partnerships and GoR between well-funded foundations were also set up at the time. various of interventions. types Small-scale innovative interventions by CSOs continued, but larger the private sector and international and local donors. MOUs were signed with multiple partners for sources of funding, including from the Government of Rajasthan (GoR), the Government of India, organizations (NGOs) to support education in the state of Rajasthan. It therefore had multiple from private the that and global sector, engaged local partners foundations and non-governmental Education Initiative (REI) also began at this time. It was an innovative multi-stakeholder partnership yearThe marked 2005–06 achange in the number of partners involved. and type Rajasthan The projects had to review their experience and strategize. dismantled and new ones brought in. CSOs that were involved in the implementation of earlier resulted in aperiod of uncertainty when the administrative structures of earlier projects were In 2002, all ongoing projects in elementary education were absorbed under the SSA. Initially, this CSOs were involved in itsimplementation as well. of these projects. DPEP The was initiated in 19 districts of Rajasthan in the DPEP’s third phase, and initiated innovative activities in schools at the micro-level were invited to help in the implementation implemented by the and GoI the state government with donor support. Several CSOs that had Karmi project and the Lok Jumbish project, which were major initiatives in primary education Programme and the Total Literacy Campaign. These programmes were followed by the Shiksha ministries in the mid-1980s. Partnerships were formed to implement the Women’s Development Rajasthan: New developments came about in community partnerships in Rajasthan in various 5 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 6 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan term, focused interventions. interventions. focused term, shows that the EFA Goals cannot achieved be through “quick strategies, fix” but instead long- need educational reform in the preceding decade. This case study’s examination of the SSA programme macro-strategies to scale-up pilot projects and it built on lessons learned from the experience of Goals. SSA The programme can considered be as a promising practice because it successfully used formed of it, as made part significant contributions towards achieving that goal and the other EFA achievedbeen yet in India. This case study found, however, that the SSA, and the partnerships It is clear that in spite of the progress made on several fronts, universal primary education has not groups. marginalized particularly related to child development and child rights, and more so for children of socially are implemented. It is that hoped CSOs will continue to raise critical issues with the government, a watchdog role when such micro-initiatives are scaled up by the government and new policies and renewal of projects. CSOs, on their should part, continue their micro-initiatives, but also play more systems in place to share information, and to streamline procedural issues related to approval In terms of getting the out best of partnerships, it would useful be for state governments to put for sufficient time for this study to able be to judge their impact. Their partnerships with the other of organizations types are still fairly new and have not continued technical expertise they could access through their local CSOs, which have awealth of experience. caseThe studies indicate that neither Rajasthan nor Madhya Pradesh made optimum use of the requirements. according to local strategies to adapt flexibility populations. While uniform norms and targets were set for all districts, the SSA framework had the of SSApart both played crucial roles in providing opportunities to address the needs of diverse and responsibilities to local governments and the decentralization of education administration as within these states and within the districts. constitutional The amendment that gave recognition towards addressing education issues arising from the diversities and inequalities that existed in the government and non-government sector, each state was free to choose itsown path SSAThe was in flexible that while it provided aframework to make use of available resources accordingly. Thus, the SSA framework offered scope to assess the impact of policies and to change strategies financial resources and the introduction of amonitoring and evaluation system at various levels. decentralized planning and implementation process, which allowed identification the additional of uniqueThe feature of the SSA programme was its inclusive and framework, flexible encompassing a state governments in the past. managerial support for programme implementation than the CSOs that had partnered with the corporate foundations. contribution Their as they was could important provide greater financial and Second, partnerships were initiated with of organizations, new types including corporate and non- scale. Despite this, these CSOs made amajor contribution to formulation policy during this period. in the implementation of major education schemes in the 1990s had partnerships at areduced during the SSA period. First, the organizations that had closely been working with the government Two interrelated processes were observed in terms of partnerships in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh fewonly a organizations. limited in terms of duration and spread, however. of 2013, As the government has partnerships with well as with local organizations such as Eklavya, Samavesh and Muskaan. partnerships The remained 1 resources. government of continued towards itsefforts reaching the EFA goals, primarily through itsown international aid to education in India increased significantly. In later decades aid declined, but the and 14, put greater attention and resources towards achieving these goals. In the following years, literacy in these countries. India, with more than 30 million out-of-school children aged 6 between education goals, and many donors expressed their willingness to aid primary education and adult summoning of significant political will. governments The of 155 countries made commitments to learning. resource The implications of these targets were formidable and therefore required the other targets related on aspects to improving access to education and the quality of teaching and Declaration proposed the attainment of universal primary education by and 2000 specified five in 1990 reinforced India’s commitment to achieving universal primary education. Jomtien The pledgesThe made during the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thailand, education in India and improving itsquality in innovative ways. assistance was accepted for several projects which aimed at extending the coverage of primary in primary school. It also led to district-based campaigns to improve adult literacy. Also, foreign schools and infrastructure in schools) and the setting of minimum levels of learning for each grade of several new programmes, including “Operation Blackboard” (which sought to improve access to 1986 when the National Policy on Education was instigated. This new led to policy the adoption to the drafting of the nation’s constitution and these goals were re-examined and reframed in India’s commitment to free and compulsory elementary education and literacy for all dates back in the region. This case at study India’s looks Shiksha Sarva Abhiyan (SSA) programme. progressgood in achieving the EFA goals, UNESCO commissioned case studies from five countries identify successful initiatives and innovative practices in the Asia-Pacific Region that have shown Paris in November 2012, acommitment was made by the participants to accelerate progress. To are unlikely to realized be in all countries by 2015 (UNESCO, 2012). At the Global EFA Meeting in There has significant been progress worldwide towards achieving the six EFA goals, but the goals “In our national our perception,“In education essentially is all.” for Introduction (National Policy on Education,(National on Policy 1986)

7 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 8 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 2 reports of thereports Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the Joint Review Mission (JRM) studyThe was primarily based on secondary sources, including India’s Five Year plans and the annual states. these organizations. All of these partnerships have made a critical contribution to education progress in foundations. Partnerships were also forged with United Nations organizations and private sector government,the including and international domestic non-governmental organizations and in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. For the implementation of the SSA, various CSOs worked with activevery in the education sector, and some of the early government-CSO partnerships occurred in reaching girls and other disadvantaged groups. Since the 1970s a number of CSOs have been have faced enormous challenges in to their provide efforts education to all children, especially Both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have significant populations of marginalized groups and replication of such strategies in other contexts. Pradesh. lessons The learned from the partnerships in these states are useful when considering the were explored in this case study, focusing on the experiences in states: two Rajasthan and Madhya different forms in the various states and these partnerships changed over time. These partnerships thebetween government and CSOs were also crucial. government-CSO The partnerships took and requiredeffort cooperation the between central, state and local governments. Partnerships planning,The implementation and monitoring of this multifaceted programme involved mammoth contexts. andflexible allowed planning and implementation to depending vary on the target groups and in all areas of the country and for all population groups. Towards this end, the programme was education elementary of with aim the achieving of focused various on aspects uniform outcomes SSAThe learned from several separate pilot projects and implemented aholistic programme that programme and the achievement of its goals. organizations and the CSO-government partnerships in terms of ensuring the success of the SSA inequity education. In particular, this case study examines the contributions of the civil society ensuringof access quality, education to good of primary completion school, and gender primary of sought to evaluate the impact of the SSA in terms of achieving the EFA goals, particularly in terms the central and state governments in all states of India 2002between and 2012. This case study the Indian government in pursuit of universal access to education, which was implemented by This case study examines Shiksha the Sarva Abhiyan programme, amacro-strategy adopted by needs if they were to have asignificant measurable impact. these practices had to successfully be mainstreamed, while taking into account local contexts and innovative practices implemented across the country. For all children in India to benefit from them, sustained and resources. effort developments The in the decades past two are a result of several In acountry as large and populous as India, the progress made towards these goals required education) and in terms of Goal 5(gender equality in access to primary and secondary education). achievements have in been terms of Goal 2(universal access to free and compulsory primary While India has shown progress in all six of the EFA goals, the extent varies for each goal. Its major Overview of the Study Overview oftheStudy and at present. at and people’s perceptions of the collaborative process and its strengths and weaknesses, in the past of the diverse roles played by non-governmental actors in the SSA programme as well as focus states. Combined, the interviews gathered avast amount of data, providing an understanding discussions were held who have with experts extensive experience of working in one or both of the team also interviewed representatives of the Department of Education and UNICEF. In Delhi, central government and with the governments in the states. two In Madhya Pradesh, the research with members of prominent organizations that have had long experience in working with the informationThe gained from the and reports other documents was supplemented by interviews by NGOs that have worked closely with the state governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments. This study also examined annual and reports other publications and statistics produced monitoring project reports, appraisal documents and the annual work plans of the central and state

9 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 10 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 3 (Indian Human Development Report 2011). Report Development Human (Indian which constitute 13 per cent of the population. incidence The is high very of poverty in this group isolation, with access poor to infrastructure and facilities. Another minority group is the Muslims, They constitute 8per cent of the population and have disadvantaged been by their geographical indigenous people who have traditionally lived in remote locations with forested and hilly terrain. population. Another disadvantaged group is the “Scheduled Tribes” (ST), also called adivasis “Scheduled Castes” (SC), have disadvantaged been as aresult. They comprise 16 per cent of the based on ahierarchical social order, endogamy and hereditary occupations. Certain groups –the Hindus, who comprise four-fifths of the total population of India, are divided into castes –asystem from social stratification. inreflected the clustering of out-of-school children in nine states and particular issues had arisen upper-primary stages, (grades 1–5 and 6–8). State-level differences in education were policy school. gross The enrolment ratios (GERs) were 92 per cent and 52 per cent at the primary and independence, yet many children (around 25 per cent in the 6–14 age group) were still out of particularly in states in and the north east. Access to schools had improved in the years 40 since Statistics from the mid-1980s paint agrim picture of the nation’s education system at the time, it is possible to make some comparisons the between states. in the manner in which schooling is structured and the way in which data is reported. Nevertheless, systems and indicators of the various states is achallenge because of differences the between states In India there are multiple sources of data on literacy and education. Comparison of the education madebeen in terms of school structures and age norms, but differences still persist. there have attempts been to institute acommon school structure in all states. Some changes have Since 1976, when education became ajoint responsibility of the central and state governments, National Policy of Education (1986). of strategic developments in education and itsgovernance, marked by the adoption of the new concern about this for need reform led, during the Seventh Plan period (1985–90), to anumber throughsystem increased inputs” (GOI, attention to 1979, non-monetary 21.47). Section Growing of financial resources, however. It was necessary “to bring about changes and improvements in the education finance. problems, The particularly in elementary education, were not only ashortage the list of concurrent responsibilities, thereby enabling the to GoI contribute more to state-level A constitutional amendment in 1976 moved education from the list of state responsibilities to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh that did not have the same emphasis on education. education, progressed quickly very in comparison to large states such as Bihar, Pradesh, Uttar independence, remained. Consequently, states such as Kerala, with arich history of investing in particularly in formal schooling. Therefore, interstate variations, which were inherited with independence from Britain in 1947. central The government played aminor role in education, Education was traditionally astate responsibility and it continued to so after be India attained Challenges EFA Achievementsand ; be inbe the primary stage of schooling rather than pre-primary. those of the National Sample (NSSO), Survey Office which show that 5-year-olds are more likely to than in pre-primary grades. This finding is supported by data collected in household surveys like states, the age of admission to Class 1 is 5 years, so the majority of 5-year-olds are in Class 1 rather figures do not include the children in the age group who are studying in primary grades. In many is likely to much be higher. Not only are the numbers in private pre-schools underestimated, the 3–5 in pre-primary grades increased 2007 between and 2012. actual The GER for pre-primary grades Calculated on the basis of the projected population in the 3–5 age group, the GER for children aged are recognized by the government, particularly the ones that focus on pre-primary education. increased in recent years, though figures no exact are available. This is because not all private schools rapidly numbers Their areas. urban in particularly common, quite are schools private in classes numberThe of government schools with pre-primary education is limited, very but pre-primary growthThe in enrolment was sharper in the earlier years but slowed down in the later years. centres and the number of students enrolled in them more than doubled 2002 between and 2011. disadvantaged groups in all areas. Data from the MWCD shows that the number of Anganwadi Anganwadi Centres are the main ECCE option for children from rural areas and for those from types of pre-primary education: pre-primary of types In India the duration of pre-primary education varies from one to three years. There are several for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. 1:Goal and improving Expanding comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially 3.1 EarlyChildhood Care andEducation the available data. Below, we take aquick look at India’s achievements in terms of the six EFA Goals, as revealed through In the context of such challenges, India’s progress towards the EFA goals has remarkable. been households and for those belonging to marginalized social groups. not being an exception. Disadvantages were even more pronounced for women from poorer In the 1980s, studies found that women were disadvantaged in multiple ways, access to education Gender differences in access to education were also extreme and cut across social communities. challenge. major a been in states that were lagging behind educationally. Providing education to these deprived groups has population. They have excluded been from mainstream development to agreat extent, particularly Combined, these three groups (SC, and ST Muslims) constitute more than one-third of India’s • • • • • • pre-primary schooling. pre-primary Privately-managed schools, which have astrong presence in India, have one to three years of schools. primary Government schools in some states have one year of pre-primary education attached to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD). the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in Anganwadi Centres under the Government provision is for three years duration, for children aged 3and between 6, of as part 11 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 12 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan the primary level than at upper-primary. net The attendance ratios are lower. grossThe attendance rates increased rapidly 1996 between and 2007, but progress was greater at Source: NSSO Figure 1: Attendance ratios for children aged 6–10 and 11–13 (1995–2010) however. average, than lower are groups vulnerable and marginalized from children of rates school attendance in 2009 –around 95 per cent. This is aremarkable achievement. attendance The the government to estimate the number of out-of-school children found an even higher level of 2009–10 the figure was nearly per cent 90 (Figure 1). Another household survey commissioned by decades. In 1995–96 nearly 70 per cent of children in the age group were attending school and in that year. NSSO survey data show arapid increase in school attendance rates in the following two According to the 1991 census data, only half of the children aged 5–14 were attending school quality.education good of those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary and circumstances difficult in children 2015 by girls, that Ensuring 2: Goal particularly children, all 3.2 Universal Education Primary facility. enrolled in primary schools, many children age in group the 3–4 are not enrolled in any education many children who do not receive any pre-primary education. While some 5-year-olds may be reach and are accessed by nearly half the children in the 3–5 age group. Nevertheless, there are proportion is enrolled in pre-primary grades in formal schools. Anganwadi Centres have a greater In summary, while the number of children accessing ECCE programmes has increased, only asmall Table 1: Enrolment schooling in facilities pre-primary (millions) Year grades (in government and private schools) has decreasing been (Table 1). While enrolment in Anganwadi Centres has been increasing, enrolment in formal pre-primary Source: 2011–12 2007–08 2002–03 Registrar GeneralofIndia(giveninrelevantyears). Seventh AllIndiaEducationSurvey,selectededucationstatisticsand populationprojectionsfromthe ICDS/Anganwadi Centres 10

Attendance Ratio 35.82 33.91 25.40 20 40 60 80 0 0 19 95–96 Pre-primary grades(formal) Pre-primary 6.30 6.58 8.17 20 07–08 20 Total attendance 09–10 42.13 40.49 33.57 1 6–10 y –13 Gross enrolment ratio

e y ar e a o r o ld 40 % ld 57% Source: UNESCOInstituteofStatistics,2013. Figure 2: Youth literacy rates (1991–2015) 87 per cent in 2015 (Figure 3). aresult, As the gender index parity is to expected near be 1by 2015. growth in literacy rates among females, with the rate rising from 50 per cent in 1991 to aprojected – from around per 60 cent in 1991 to apredicted rate per of cent 90 in 2015. There was even greater 2015 show an increase in the youth literacy rate of more than 50 per cent over the decades past two literacyThe rates of youth aged 15–24 have increased remarkably since 1991. Projected figures for access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes. Goal 3: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable 3.3 aged 16–17 completed Class 8. aged 11–13 completed Class 5, only 49 per cent of children aged 11–13 and per 68 cent of children complete eight years of education. NSSO data for 2007–08 shows that while 71.5 per cent of children Furthermore, while the increasing attendance rates are apositive sign, not all enrolled children grades. them are over-age for their grades, indicating that many children begin schooling late and/or repeat While more children are attending school, not all are studying at age appropriate grades –many of Source: NSSOrelevantrounds Figure 2: The expansionThe of secondary and vocational education has more been limited. increaseThe in literacy rates has achieved been primarily through expansion of primary education. Youth andAdult Skills Gross attendance ratios and levels upper-primary at primary (1995 Literacy rate 100 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

GAR 10 20 40 60 80 0 0 1991 19 95– 96 2001 20 07– 08 2006 20 09– 2015 (projected) 10 U Prim ppe – All Female Male 2010) ar r- y Prim ar y 13 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 14 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan achievement in basic education quality. of good gender equality in education by 2015, with afocus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and Goal 5: Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving inAccess Equality 3.5 Gender to Education Basic Source: NSSO Figure 4: of the National Literacy Campaign conducted in the early 1990s. rapid 1991 between and 2001, but has slowed down since then. early The spurtcould the be impact literacy, asignificant gender gap remains. increase The in the male and female literacy rates was literacy rate increased from 38 per cent to 61 per cent (Figure 4). Despite this large increase in female rate increased from 67 per cent in 1995–96 to nearly 79 per cent in 2009–10, while the female decades, and the targeted increase of 50 per cent is likely to achieved be by 2015. male The literacy literacyThe rate of adults (persons aged over 15) has increased significantly over the past two and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. Goal 4: Achieving a50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, 3.4 Improvement inAdult Literacy 3: Table Table 2: Attendance rates of youth (2009–10) receiving vocational training was almost negligible (Table 3). 15–24 youthof aged were attending educational institutions in 2009–10 (Table 2). proportion The Attendance rates are lower among youth compared to younger groups. age around Only third one Source: NSSO66 Source: NSSO66 Proportion of youth Proportion receiving received or formal vocational training (2009–10) 2009–10 2009–10 Adult literacy rates (1995–96 to 2009–10) Year Year th th

Literacy rate 100 Round(2009–10) Round(2009–10) 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1995 – 96 30.1% 2.9 % Male 2004 Male – 05 2007 – 08 Female Female 22.1% 2.3 % 2009 – 2010 26.4% 2.6 % All All Female Male Source: NSSOrelevantrounds 2009–10) Figure 5c: Source: NSSOrelevantrounds 2009–10) 5b: Figure Source: NSSOrelevantrounds 2009–10) Figure 5a: 5c). almost equal (Figures 5a and 5b), though amarked difference persists at the secondary level. (Figure 2009–10, the attendance rates of males and females at the primary and upper-primary levels were gapThe male between and female attendance rates has declined over the decades. past of two As education achievements persists, however. persists, achievements education declined over time and the differences in these rates are now lower. Adifference in male and female secondary, particularly in terms of participation. dropout The rates of both boys and girls have dataThe show asignificant improvement in gender at parity all levels: primary, upper-primary and Gender differences in attendance differences Gender rates of children 14–17 aged (1995–96 to Gender differences in attendance differences Gender rates of children 6–10 aged (1995–96 to Gender differences in attendance differences Gender rates of children 11–13 aged (1995–96 to

Attendance rate 100

40 50 60 70 80 90 Attendance rate 100 Attendance rate 100 40 50 60 70 80 90 40 50 60 70 80 90 1995-96 1995-96 1995-96 2007-08 2007-08 2007-08 2009-10 2009-10 2009-10 Female Male Female Male Female Male 15 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 16 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of schooling.of National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986; seeking to improve access to education and the quality introduces section next The education projects that were introduced in several states following the teaching activity, even when teachers are present in school (De et. al., 2011). teacher attendance is still quite low, and school and classroom observation indicate low levels of the decades, past two many more schools have set been up, and functioning has improved, but which impacts learning negatively, as doesschool poor functioning and teacher absenteeism. Over 2006), al., et. (Chaudhary irregular quite also is attendance Student backgrounds. disadvantaged is textbook-focused, very and the levels do not match the learning capabilities of children from by that the fact many students are first generation learners and have little home support. Teaching the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) confirm this. situation The is aggravated 15-year-olds in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in Indian two states that participated in improving levels of learning in terms of literacy and numeracy skills. scores poor The achieved by of Education 2006 and National Report Achievement Survey Class V2012) reveal slow progress in suggests that the quality of teaching still leaves much to desired. be Survey data (Annual Status has developed. been In addition, teachers are given regular in-service training, though feedback In terms of improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, anew curriculum framework pace with the increase in enrolments, though shortfalls continue. particularly in densely populated states such as Bihar. More teachers have recruited been to keep to facilitate wheelchair access. Yet, in spite of these improvements, there are still infrastructural gaps, availability of toilets and drinking water has also improved. Additionally, many schools have ramps have all-weather classrooms, brightly painted and welcoming to both teachers and students. The Where previously there were dilapidated buildings, often with leaking roofs, today many schools school infrastructure has improved, even in the educationally disadvantaged states in India. north progressThe towards Goal 6has limited, been in spite It can said, be of arange however, of efforts. that skills. life essential and recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy Goal 6: Improving all of the aspects quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that 3.6 Improving ofEducation theQuality 4 occurred in 1992. 73 The Another important change was in terms of local government responsibility for education, which for the first time. India in education towards primary directed were resources aid of amount significant A launched. netsafety programme, funded by loans from the World Bank and International Fund, Monetary was to primary education following the Jomtien EFA conference in 1990. Thus, acompensatory social met by international and banks aid agencies, which were keen to increase their aid commitments Therefore, supplementary funding was necessary to implement the NPE. funding The needs were an increase in expenditures salary following the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. already had limited resources, faced an additional resource crunch, and this was aggravated by with consequent expenditure reductions in the social sector. education The department, which early 1990s. attempt The to stabilize the situation led to sharp reductions in public expenditures for education. India had developed alarge gap public between expenditure and revenue in the significant impact on the education system. One such change was in the area of public funding Several changes in the macro-environment took place around this time, and these had a requirements of the country” (Aggarwal, J. C., 2008, p. 20). of education, to maintain quality and standards…(and) to study and monitor the educational national government “a larger responsibility to reinforce the national and integrative character formally signalled achange in the role of the central government in school education, giving the the list of state responsibilities to the concurrent list, and these new centrally sponsored schemes people-mobilization and micro-planning at the district level. Lok The Jumbish initiative also relied coveringnorm, all components basic of education and incorporating simultaneous a process of programme for teachers (Lacey et. al. 1993). Likewise, the Bihar Education Project went beyond the Pradesh Primary Education Project had components two –acapital building and atraining part comprehensive strategy than the schemes introduced in earlier years. For example, the Andhra new projects were financed through donor aid, the interventions were designed based on amore primary education system were due to more than aresource crunch (GOI, 1986). Hence, while most teacher 42 education. The including “Operation Blackboard”, revised schemes for non-formal education and new schemes for of the implementation part As of the NPE, several centrally sponsored schemes were launched, as they brought about anew emphasis on elementary education. following a revision of the NPE in 1992. In the Indian context, these documents policy were important, In 1986 India formulated the National Policy on Education (NPE), and aPlan of Action was developed As theAs 7 coverage. asstarted pilot interventions on asmall scale and were later expanded in terms of geographical yearsThe 1986 between and 1994 saw the emergence of various innovative schemes (Table 4), which education of management. structure the recognition, and school education was included in the list of their responsibilities. This influenced th Five Year Plan described, there was the realization in the 1980s that the problems in the The FirstDecadeofEFA rd and 74 and nd constitutional amendment (1976) had earlier moved education from th constitutional amendments gave governments local statutory 17 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 18 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Table 4: Education in India (1987–1994) projects components and focusedbuilding on institutional capacity. accountability and to improve relevance. Pradesh Uttar The Basic Education project had similar heavily community on mobilization and sought to increase decentralization management of and 1987 1987 1987 1987 1988 89 1988– 1991 1992 1992 94 1993– Year Operation Blackboard Education of TeacherReorganization and Restructuring Education Project Andhra Pradesh Primary Shiksha Karmi Project Shiksha Karmi revised Non-formal education Mahila Samakhya Mahila Bihar Education Project Education Project PradeshUttar Basic Lok Jumbish Project Education Primary District Programme weather schools. rooms, essentialteaching aidsandtoilets) inallprimary teachers perschool)andbetter all- (atleasttwo infrastructure (atleasttwo This was introduced to improve through quality theprovision ofmore headquarters to provide in-service trainingfor to provide teachers.headquarters in-service ofEducation and Institutes District Training were setupatdistrict competence of primary schoolteachers through trainingprogrammes.competence ofprimary andto enhancetheprofessionalschool buildingsandimprove theirquality; aimswereAndhra Pradesh. schoolwithclassrooms and to Its provide primary in 1984and1986,thisproject wasexpandedin1987tobetween alldistricts Funded by overseas development agenciesandinitiated inapilotphase teachers. Focused onremote, ruralareas. economically-challenged rate andinadequate accessto education by traininglocallyrecruited para- Agency.Development Aimedto address teacher absenteeism, ahighdropout andtheSwedish International theGovernment ofRajasthan the GoI, thisproject wasacollaborative venture inRajasthan, Introduced between introduced in10educationallydisadvantagedstates, slums. aswell asinurban for educationataconvenientopportunities was place, paceandtime. It provided school. themwith It intheformal elementary able to participate system ofeducationforThis wasanalternative children delivery whoare not development. thatcouldenhancetheirchildren’sto create educationalopportunities toSought enablethewomen decisionsabouttheirown to lives make and women from sociallyandeconomically marginalized groups inruralareas. by Dutch Aid. This projectfocused ontheeducationandempowerment of andGujarat,funded Pradesh, inUttar Karnataka Launched in10districts planning at the district level. planning atthedistrict andmicro- asimultaneousprocessand incorporated ofpeople-mobilization education system. The project covered allcomponentsofbasiceducation bringing aboutquantitative andqualitative improvement intheelementary inBihar.Launched in1991withaidfrom UNICEFin20districts Focused on constructing additional primary and upper-primary schools. andupper-primary additionalprimary constructing management; and(c) improving accessto basiceducation(upto grade 8)by training, targeted programs for women andgirls, andstrengthened school revision, andtextbook in-service childhoodeducation,curriculum early andcompletionrates throughquality strengthened participation, community and evaluate abasiceducationdevelopment program; (b)improving school componentswere toMain plan,manage, (a)buildinginstitutionalcapacity Pradesh initiallyandfundedby inUttar Introduced in10districts World Bank. accountability. heavily onpeople’s mobilizationanddecentralizationofmanagement education” childhasaccessto elementary that every relied (upto grade 8).It transform themainstream education system of ensuring withtheobjective Rajasthan. The projectgoalwas develop,“to demonstrate, catalyseand in inthreefrom Agency Development districts theSwedish International with support by andtheGovernment ofRajasthan Introduced theGoI This project received aidfrom multiplesources. in18states.first project implemented atanationallevel covering 272districts gradually expanded, inseveral phases, to cover and becamethe more districts inseven states, initiallyin42districts it Implemented all inspecificdistricts. Focused onproviding educationto four to five primary years ofgoodquality Intervention andcoverageIntervention guidelines (8 childhood education and reform in educational management and planning, in line with the new creation,textbook professional development teachers, of improved classroom early practices, DPEP was implemented through the SIS. focus The was on community mobilization and participation, 219 of the 575 districts of India. programme expanded over the years, in three phases, and in itsfinal phase the programme covered of 85:15, with aid from the World Bank, European Union, DFID, UNICEF and the Netherlands. The centralThe and state governments financed DPEP projects in cooperation with donors in aratio sources. multiple through funded DPEP in 1993–94, thus beginning the first education programme to developed be indigenously and the World Bank –in funding district-based primary education projects enabled the GOI to launch Plan) but it was limited by alack of resources. interest The of international donors –led by the EC and The GOIThe wished to adopt different strategies and plans for different of districts (8 types including DPEP. the its unit for planning, led to the development of district-based further projects and programmes, the inter-state variations. success The of the Total Literacy Campaign, which had used districts as than significant more were variations inter-district the that found data district-level of Examination education department. both centrally and state-generated funds for implementation, and worked in parallel to the state not implemented through the state education departments. Instead, SIS were set up, which used implemented in specific districts, and within districts in specific Some of these blocks. projects were 1998). new The projects marked achange in education planning. These new projects were usually Pradesh and West Bengal) had received assistance under centrally sponsored schemes (GOI, Uttar Rajasthan, Orissa, Pradesh, Bihar, Kashmir, Madhya and Jammu Assam, Pradesh, Arunachal Until the late 1980s, states that had been identified as “educationally backward”, (Andhra Pradesh, people-intensive process. reporting to, and dialogue with, more than 30 donor agencies and thus time- became and avery sector wide approaches. However, for the GOI, the structure was somewhat unwieldy, as it involved From the donors’ point of view, the financing of DPEP acquired many of the essentials of later among employees elsewhere. favoured status, including in terms of levels of remuneration, which led to resentments building up departments, leading to major inter-district variations. DPEP districts were seen to have amore projects) were implemented by SIS, while others were the responsibility of the state education programme was that many education projects in this period (both DPEP and the other smaller schooling and greater social (Singh equity and Sreedhar, 2005). Aproblem identified with the literacy rates. Also, interventions under the programme appeared to have facilitated access to Evaluations of DPEP found that it had apositive impact in districts that with low off started female implementation of the programme. Missions, in which nominees from the donors and the government were to meet to monitor the outcomes rather than inputs. Another major departure was the system of biennial Joint Review A major difference from earlier schemes was that the targets of DPEP were specified in terms of use. and analysis information system was developed, with the district as the unit of collection, computerization, for education the vulnerable of difficult-to-reach children. computerized A education management th Five Year Plan). According to guidelines, the education non-formal was encouraged th Five Year Five 19 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 20 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 13) from the government to CSOs in terms of service delivery, from the 7 prominent CSOs of that period. According to Chandoke, there was a“perceptible (2009, shift” p. In all these cases, visionary bureaucrats are reported to have looked to harness the expertise of play amajor role in their capacity building. the local communities to able be to undertake local self-government, and CSOs were to expected passingThe of the Panchayeti Raj (Rule of Village Committee) in Act 1989 led to to a need empower again the success of the initiatives depended on building support for them in the local communities. International pressure in the 1990s to eliminate child labour also gave CSOs amore visible role, as largely of the to CSOs. the efforts and developing literacy skills of neo-literates, the initial success of the literacy movement is credited they were active in mobilizing communities. While there were many problems related to sustaining district-focused adult literacy campaigns. CSOs were an integral of this part important initiative as lateThe 1980s also saw the establishment of the National Literacy Mission, and the beginning of educationnon-formal programme was largely however. non-functional, persons or groups focused on meeting the needs of children from marginalized communities. The the community. Non-formal education centres were to expected more be when effective run by children. CSOs were seen as suited best to implement this programme because of their links with 1992Action sought to revise existing the programme education non-formal of for out-of-school increasing role for civil organizations society (Nair, 2004). NPE The 1986 and the revised Plan of emergenceThe of these new education projects in the late 1980s and early 1990s also saw an be discussedbe later. the implementation of the programme. SSA The Framework (MHRD, 2011) also drew in CSOs, as will systemic changes brought in education about management, planning and finance that facilitated programme was not only aconsequence of the specific interventions included in it, but also of the of the projects discussed above, and was implemented in the whole country. uniqueness The of the followingThe discusses section Shikhsha the Sarva Abhiyan programme, which incorporated features Pradesh. teaching methods. These will discussed be in greater detail in the context of Rajasthan and Madhya well as in developing and revising subject contents and curricula and in introducing innovative Several of the CSOs were also involved in developing new methods to mobilize communities, as similarly, had oversight committees at the national and state levels that included members of CSOs. these societies included members of DPEP CSOs. The initiative, which was spread over many states, in Rajasthan, which were run by registered societies set up by the government. boards The of the larger educational projects. Examples include the Shiksha Karmi and Lok Jumbish programmes involved in service delivery, their technical expertise was also being utilized in the management of back the role of the government and bringing in non-governmental providers. While CSOs were onwards. This was not only in the education sector, but of was the broader apart pattern of rolling th Five Year Plan (1985–90) 5 and De, 2013). through memorandum a understanding of (MOU) with common formats (Colclough for all partners and resources, GoI while having no parallel financing structures. Procedures were harmonized projects. SSA The became asector wide approach –the first in the country to external pool funds from the World Bank, DFID and the EC. terms The of financing were different from the earlier aided regular budgetary sources to meet itsshare, however. Accordingly, in it requested 2004 assistance proportions of 75 per cent to 25 per cent. was GoI The not able to mobilize sufficient resources from centralThe and state governments intended to jointly fund the programme –initially in the 2010). (Shekhar, echelons of were society directly involved in the SSA programme’s governance and management and representatives civil of society. Accordingly, political and professional leaders from highestthe education ministers, representatives of teacher unions and political parties, educationists, scientists the ministers of the MWCD and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, as well as state Resource Development executive the headed committee. mission the of members Other included primeThe minister of India headed the council, while the minister of the Ministry of Human A national SSA “mission” was constituted with agoverning council and an executive committee. up to Class In 8. other districts, the SSA represented significant avery new development. implemented, the SSA represented mainly ascaling-up from schooling up to Class 5to schooling years of education (elementary cycle). Thus, in the districts where DPEP and other projects had been of universalising five years of education (primary cycle) was now extended to universalising eight programme were that the SSA was to implemented be in all districts of India, and the earlier target While these objectives were similar to those of earlier projects, the major differences of this education by 2007, in elementary education by 2010, and to achieve universal retention by 2010. with an emphasis on “education for life”; and (iii) to eliminate gender and social gaps in primary complete eight years of schooling by 2010; (ii) to achieve asatisfactory level of education quality that age group would complete five years of schooling by 2007, while all children aged 6–14 would to enrol all children aged 6–11 in schools or alternative centres by 2003, and to ensure all children in Three major time-bound targets, quite similar to EFA goals 2, 5and 6, were adopted. These were: (i) initiatives in elementary education. framework for decentralized planning and implementation of all central and state government Review Missions of DPEP. intention The of the programme was to provide a wide but convergent informed by evaluations of earlier education projects, particularly by the experience of the Joint Education (AIE) centres, and reaching about 200 million children (GoI, 2008). This programme was one million elementary schools, Education Guarantee Scheme centres and Alternate and Innovative holistic programme in the country, addressing all of elementary aspects education and covering over programme at the national level, absorbing all the individual projects. SSA The was the single largest In 2001–02, the initiated GoI Shiksha the Sarva Abhiyan programme. It was implemented as asingle Programme The SarvaShikshaAbhiyan 21 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 22 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (AWPB) in aparticipatory process involving school teachers and education officers as well as the newThe process of planning involved the preparation of an Annual Work Plan and Budget monitoring enrolment school and attendance and helping in enrolment drives. parent-teacher associations (PTAs). members The of these bodies were given the responsibility of and (VECs) committees education village committees, management school including bodies, School-community linkages were set up through the formation of various community-based decentralized. To facilitate the implementation of the programme, the school administrative structure was also to streamline and enhance and the efficiency transparency of the system. ensure asmooth of funds. flow Afinancial management and procurement system was introduced funds. Therefore, with technical support from external agencies, major changes were planned to Feedback from earlier projects had demonstrated the problems that arose from irregular of flow needs. kept to allow the state, district and local governments to adapt the programme to their particular centrally-specified norms (based on enrolment) were to used be in planning, some was flexibility annualThe financing needs were determined through the process of decentralized planning. While levels. district level, and through Block Resource Centres (BRC) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRC) at the sub- was administered through the SIS at the state level, through District Project at Offices the district projectThe structure that had been used in DPEP was introduced in all districts. SSA The programme administrative structure of the state education system. the SIS, and then to the district and block level offices.These were set up in parallel with the regular all states. First, as with DPEP, funds were transferred not from the centre to the states, but directly to In order to implement the SSA programme, new institutions and processes were first put in place in community leaders, NGO representatives, school heads, teachers and parents. was identified through aparticipatory process involving members of local education committees, initiated to mobilize communities and build awareness of the programme. A core planning team the focus was on communities and the schools serving them, and apre-programme phase was Decentralized planning, implementation and monitoring were at the core of SSA. At the micro-level, 5.1 SSAPhase I(2003–2007) SSA Framework (MHRD, 2011) and 10 the state governments and the donors. partners agreed The on the approach developed in the tenOver the next years, the programme was co-funded by the three partners: the central government, examine the developments of the SSA in each of the three phases. phase, the objectives and strategies of the SSA were assessed and revised. following The sections theAct, programme was extended for athird phase, from 2009–10 until 2011–12. During this third and the second being from 2007–08 to 2009–10. Following the enactment of the Right to Education programmeThe was initially planned for phases: two the first being from until 2003–04 2006–07, reduction in transaction costs (World Bank, 2007). sector wide approach have positive been and the harmonization among donor partners enabled a or implementation of the programme. One of the donors noted that experiences with this of type th Five Year Plan, and took in day-to-day no part monitoring programmes for teacher training, remedial teaching, training of community members and PRIs, During this phase, groups were encouraged to involved be in local level innovations. This included having the vision and the competence to play awatchdog role. lead to greater transparency of programme interventions. Clearly, the government viewed CSOs as involvedbe in research and evaluation, as well as in the monitoring of SSA activities, since this would frameworkThe document also made what appears to a revolutionary be suggestion: CSOs should nurtured. in the sphere of disability among children, and proposed that these partnerships to needed be developmentfor capacity for planning and implementation, expressing gender concerns, and work out-of-school children, teacher developing training effective programmes, organizing community in previous the done and gave decade examplessuch, of some including pedagogy, mainstreaming partnership with the government. document The was highly appreciative of the work that CSOs had SSAThe framework document, (MHRD, 2001) specified an important role for CSOs in working in within the functioning of the SSA and what they felt could provide useful lessons for SSA. Taken together, they provide useful insights into what members saw over the years as being valuable JRM provideThe reports useful details of the education situation at the times they were undertaken. implementation. that emerged from the review process were incorporated in the planning process and in programme management and procurement system was an important of the recommendations JRM. The part the nominees of agencies and alternated GoI in this role (Ayyar, 2008). Areview of the financial Under the SSA, nominee aGoI was now to head each JRM instead of the earlier practice whereby compositionThe of JRMs in the SSA gave greater voice to the than GoI had the been case in DPEP. interventions. and changes policy suggest could participants and experiences, their share could JRMsThe provided aforum where achievements could assessed be against targets, where states primarily adesk review with presentations from different states. January and July. January The mission involved visits to specific states and the July mission was after the external funders came on board. This JRM process was conducted twice every year, in Missions, used in DPEP, was found quite useful so was introduced into the SSA from January 2005, for appraisaldistricts and monitoring. monitoring The and accountability mechanism, Joint Review resource institutions all over the country were identified to provide technical support to states and While the community-based bodies had the responsibility of school-level monitoring, about 40 Monitoring was another important component established to facilitate programme implementation. System for Education data) to all districts and schools providing elementary education. the school data collection system that had been developed in DPEP districts (District Information management information system was necessary. This was attempted through an extension of To facilitate decentralized planning and monitoring, an easily-accessible decentralized education through a“bottom up” approach –from school to cluster, block and then district level. the for need infrastructure, teachers and incentives. Thus, the district annual plans were compiled neighbourhood schools and their facilities, helped with planning at the school level and determined identify children who were out of school. These findings, when matched with the availability of School Improvement Plans. They were encouraged to conduct regular household surveys and key role in micro-planning, especially in the development of Village/Ward Education Plans and thus taking into account local needs and specific contexts. PRIs The were to expected play a community-based bodies and local government institutions or Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs), 23 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 24 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan per cent of the total expenditures rather than the 30 per cent that had planned. been 3.5 billion that had planned. been So the disbursed external aid (around USD 1 billion) was only 13 amounted2006–07 to approximately USD 7.8 billion – more than double the expenditure of USD per cent share of the SSA costs. total The programme expenditures over the period to 2003–04 stateThe governments were able to mobilize higher amounts than anticipated to meet their 25 scheme).meal for both the SSA programme and Nutritional Support to Primary Education (the school midday could rolled be over from one year to and the were next used exclusively for elementary education, maintained by the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy within the MHRD. funds The reserved for education. money The was kept in afund titled the “Prathmik Shiksha Kosh”, which was as an addition to all central taxes from onwards. 2004 funds The collected through this were tax the necessary domestic resources. This was largely aresult of the 2per cent education levied tax importantA very reason for the programme’s successes in the first phase was the availability of of SSA was far from simply acontinuation of earlier practice. the definitions of eligible activities and financial norms were also modified. Thus, this second phase to integrated be into the mainstream education system. With the changes in focus and priorities, sustainability of the programme, the practices good that evolved under SSA Phase Iwere required programme was extended until 2011–12 (the end of the 11th Five Year Plan period). To ensure the From this time, the SSA programme had a slightly altered focus. In addition, the duration of the 2008). (GoI, education” high-quality and assessment the report, SSA priorities were “reoriented to meet the challenges of equity, retention, those who were in school had low levels of learning. In response to the recommendations of the (GoI, 2008). Furthermore, learning achievement surveys conducted by the NCERT highlighted that numberThe of out-of-school children had declined, but retention until grade 8remained aproblem could said be to have reached. been Significant additional progress was needed, however, before the goals set in the SSA framework targets had achieved, been particularly as regards the access and targets equity at the primary level. A mid-term assessment of SSA was conducted in 2005–06, which showed that several of the 5.2 SSAPhase II(2007–2010) of the country.parts consultations in which they worked with other scholars and classroom practitioners in different access to the prepared reports by 21 national focus groups. Each of these focus groups had several NCERT faculty. This committee was responsible for preparing the revised NCF document and had chairman, representatives of CSOs with experience in the education sector, and members of the from various disciplines, school principals, teachers, the Central Board of Secondary Education Committee under the chairpersonship of Prof. Yashpal and selected 35 members, including scholars NationalThe Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) set up the National Steering collaboration the between government and the non-governmental sector in India (Banerji, 2011). Framework (NCF) 2005. This consultation process is regarded as one of the examples best of thereIn 2004–05 were extensive consultations around the development of the National Curriculum million Indian Rupees (INR) to finance This amount these efforts. was increased over the years. and life-skills based education. For this purpose, each district was initially allocated a maximum of 5 considerably, in response to the encouragement provided in the SSA framework (MHRD, 2011). The number of organizations working in collaboration with governments at different levels increased governments signed MOUs with both the larger foundations and the smaller groups. Thus, the sheer these foundations tended to able be to access funding to operate on afairly large scale. State The Pratham Foundation and the Naandi Foundation. Unlike the smaller, local non-profit groups, Large autonomous organizations also in working education the began sector, including the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation India’s of Foundation for Inclusive (IFIG). Growth organisations to work in the development sector, such as the Premji Azim Foundation and the A number of corporations (including information technology companies and banks) had set up During the SSA period there was a broadening of organizations of the type working in education. Planning and Administration, 2008). were encouraged with equity quality of (National objectives the support University Educational of Partnerships with the private sector and civil society organizations within the SSA framework to of context-specific strategies. Steps towards developing an urban strategy were also planned. higher resource allocation for disadvantaged clusters and into the preparation and implementation disadvantaged groups and educationally backward areas within districts. This was translated into a central theme in the discussion and vision for quality improvement. Special focus was given to became issues Equity groups. social specific among areas and geographical specific in clustered that with improvement in access to schooling, those who remained out of school were usually dimensions two The prioritized in this second phase were quality and equity. It had been seen organizations. In Phase II, therefore, priority was given to improving the role of PRIs and effectiveness of community mid-termThe assessment had also identified the to need strengthen the decentralization process. revisions. textbook the revision of syllabi, curriculum and pedagogy at the state level and to out the carry consequent An important new focus was using the NCF 2005 and the syllabi prepared by the NCERT to guide mechanisms. accountability and training of lack a and address all teacher-related problems arising from vacancies, absenteeism, non-teaching assignments, as teacher competence, classroom processes and student attendance. were Efforts also made to in early primary grades. There was also agreater focus on monitoring key process indicators such conditions met minimum standards and children acquired the basic skills of literacy and numeracy rates and student achievement levels. Related to this was apush towards ensuring basic learning emphasis outcome of importance the on was put indicators, including retention and dropout to schooling and inputs into the elementary education system. During the second phase, greater In itsfirst phase, SSA had largely focused on the planning, implementation and monitoring of access were required to contribute only 10 per cent of the approved outlay. Meghalaya) and Pradesh Tripura, Arunachal Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, (Assam, states for the years first two (2005–06 and 2006–07), whereby each of the less-developed north-eastern third year, 45 per cent in the fourth year and 50 per cent thereafter. There was aspecial dispensation 25 per cent up to 35 per cent for the years first two of the 11th Plan, then up to per cent 40 in the SSA. share The provided by the states increased gradually in the 11th Five Year Plan period, from A change to the programme in Phase II was arevision of the central and state shares in funding the educationelementary “Technical under its Cooperation Fund”. second phase, with no change in conditions. DFID provided aseparate grant of USD 10 million to It was then mutually agreed that the donor partners would contribute around USD 1billion in the 25 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 26 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan remarkable. towards EFA goals 2and 5. In such alarge and populous country, the rapidity of the progress was SSAThe programme achieved agreat deal, as observed in the earlier discussions of India’s progress 5.4 Achievements and Limitations social audits of schools were carried out by CSOs in partnership with the NCPCR under the MWCD. implementation of the Right to Education were Act, also conducted by CSOs. Some highly effective all children. Social audits, innovative mechanisms that involve the community in monitoring the Right to Education in Act itsproper spirit and to provide equitable and education good-quality to from all over India, played acritical role in putting pressure on the government to implement the Aid, Care India, and Save Oxfam the Children) and acombined strength of some 10,000 CSOs RightThe to Education Forum, an independent group with core funding from four (Action CSOs pedagogy, monitoring and continuous and comprehensive evaluation. social mapping, running special training centres (converted from AIE centres), developing curricula, to include mobilization was henceforth expected CSOs and awareness-building regarding Act, the toneeded viewed be as partners in the implementation of the Right to Education work The Act. of audits and hold public hearings in their respective states, the SSA Framework noted that CSOs Commissions for the Protection of Child Rights to work together with CSOs to undertake social with the Bordia Committee’s observations, which encouraged both the NCPCR and the State changed context in which education was recognized as ajusticiable right for the child. In keeping revisedThe SSA Framework (MHRD, 2011) saw CSOs as playing aparticularly important role in the costs were the responsibility of the central and state governments. Thus, the donor partners gave almost USD 1billion in addition to previous funds. remaining The 750 million, while DFID committed to spending an additional USD 220 million on SSA activities. WorldThe Bank extended their agreement and provided additional funding in the amount of USD Funds were required to finance the costs associated with the SSA’s additional, expanded activities. structure. the new At Act. this time, the SSA management structure was integrated with the state education children with special needs (CWSN). aresult, As the SSA framework was broadened to implement education, educationists, representatives teachers’ of unions, and organizations CSOs with working SSA programme in light of the Right to Education It Act. held consultations with state secretaries of In this context, the MHRD established a committee to suggest necessary follow-up action in the 2011). attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6–14 age group (MHRD, This cast Act an obligation on the government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, framework for upholding the right of all children aged 6–14 to an education of reasonable quality. passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education provides Act The Act. alegal In August 2009, following significant pressure from CSOs and other stakeholders, the government to5.3 SSAAfter theRight Education Act context of the states two of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. of organizationand the type varied greatly. We will discussing be this in section in the the next of partnershipstype that state governments chose to enter into in terms of the area of intervention Source: SelectedEducationStatistics,2000–01and2005–06,StatisticsofSchool Education,2009–10 Source: JRM,relevantyears Table 6: Table period. figures, but all show the trend of arapid decline in the number of out-of-school children over this estimates of numbers of out-of-school children, calculated from other data sources, show different in the 6–14 age group; falling from 32 million in 2002 to only 3million in 2010–11 (Table 6). Other improvementThe in access is in reflected the sharp decline in the number of out-of-school children 5: Table the early years, but only asmall increase in primary enrolment in the later years (Table 5). cent). enrolment The in primary and upper-primary classes show asimilar trend –high for both in primary schools was lower (6.6 per cent) while that for upper-primary schools remained high (27 per per cent and per cent) 40 in the early years of the SSA programme, in the later years the growth in While there was alarge increase in the number of both primary and upper-primary schools (21 These facilities increased access to education for asignificant proportion of vulnerable children. Similarly, residential facilities were provided for tribal children under the Ashram School Scheme. dropped out of school. Initially, the KGBV was aseparate scheme, but it was later merged with SSA. Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme, which targeted girls from marginalized social groups who had Improved residential facilities for upper-primary girls were provided under the Kasturba Gandhi Following the Right to Education the Act, scope for providing residential schools was expanded. through the setting up of more schools or expanding primary schools to encompass class 8. Consequently, the following years saw arapid increase in the number of upper-primary schools mid-termThe assessment of the SSA indicated access problems at the upper-primary level. groups. EGS The and AIE centres have since converted been into formal primary schools. providing schooling in the smaller and more remote communities and targeting disadvantaged children in urban locales. These centres played an important role in the initial years of the SSA by could not directly be enrolled in aschool or EGS, such as children of seasonal migrants and deprived case ofand desert hilly areas), while AIE centres were established for “hard-to-reach” children who in un-served communities that had at least 25 out-of-school children aged 6–14 (15 children in the EGS and AIE centres as temporary arrangements (Second JRM, 2.3). Sec EGS centres were opened Access was improved by building new schools and classrooms and, where necessary, by setting up Access: Elementary (inmillions) Elementary millions) Upper-primary(in (inmillionsofstudents) Primary schools(inthousands) Elementary schools(in thousands) Upper-primary schools(inthousands) Primary Progress in education in India (2000–01, and 2009–10) 2005–06 Number of out-of-school children (2002–03 to 2010–11) Number ofschools 2010–11 2008–09 2005–06 2002–03 Year 2000–01 156.6 113.8 42.8 844 206 638 Enrolment 2005–06 184.3 132.1 1,060 52.2 288 772 % increase No. children ofout-of-school 39.8% 21.0% 17.7% 22.0% 16.1% 25.6% 10.4 million 32.0 million 2.7 million 2.8 million 2009–10 135.6 1190 59.4 195 367 823 % increase 12.2% 27.4% 13.8% 5.8% 6.6% 2.6% 27 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 28 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan children from vulnerable groups require continued targeted support. support. targeted continued require groups vulnerable from children and girls narrowed. High dropout rates remain a source of major concern, however, indicating that boys between and groups social different the between differences the significantly, and declined disadvantaged communities, both at the primary and upper-primary levels. dropout The rates also brought Table benefits. As 7shows, much was achieved in terms of enrolment of children from school from exclusion and classroom the in discrimination eliminating on emphasis The approach. Over time, the focus of the SSA shifted from an input-based approach to aprocess-based Although this scheme was not of the SSA, apart it was implemented within itsframework. of government or aided schools were provided with a hot meal each day they attended school. was acentrally sponsored scheme under which all students studying in the elementary classes One of the major initiatives with positive on was equity the Midday effects Meal Scheme. This important. particularly was scheme female teachers and constructing separate girls’ toilets. Kasturba The Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya access. Additionally, the school participation of girls in general was facilitated by appointing more Girls from disadvantaged social groups benefited from the measures implemented to increase support by special teachers through home visits. normal schools, special education was provided at AIE centres. Other children were given education and providing schools with the facilities required by CWSN. For the CWSN who could not attend teachers, regular training and sensitizing teachers, special recruiting by schools into neighbourhood approach approach tothree-pronged primary integrate included was adopted. trying The them Bridge courses, seasonal hostels and other tailored opportunities were introduced. For CWSN, a of innovative schooling, with the objective of eventually absorbing them into formal schools. Vulnerable children – migrant children, child workers and street children – received various kinds medium of instruction or as alanguage taught in many government schools in these areas. religious education, madrasas the and supporting for these communities was improved by introducing general subjects into madrasas, from the same tribal community as the pupils. In areas of Muslim concentration, access to school positive impact on the schooling of tribal children. Attempts were also made to recruit teachers norms for setting up schools or EGS centres and residential schooling were relaxed, which had a to Education school Act, supplies became entitlements for children. In tribal areas, the population by some state governments of scholarships and uniforms. With the implementation of the Right other measures, including the provision to of free all textbooks enrolled children and the provision schoolingThe of children from disadvantaged social groups was also supported through various educationally “backward” areas –the “Special Focus Districts” and “Educationally Backward Blocks”. CWSN) and helped to positively impact their participation. To this end, funds were directed towards several schemes targeted at disadvantaged groups (girls, SC, ST, Muslims, the urban poor, and implementation of targeted schemes within itsbroad framework. SSA The programme incorporated regards enrolment rates, were remarkable. design The of SSA with itsbuilt-in allowed flexibility SSAThe programme’s achievements in terms of bridging social and gender gaps, particularly as Equity under the SSA. Urdu was introduced as either the in addition to Source: NCERT,2008 PTRs remainedPTRs high very in several states, such as Bihar and West Bengal. downschool to in 2004–05 32 and 29 in 2010–11 (Table 9). But the decrease was not uniform and in the decrease in the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) from in 46 primary school and 35 in upper-primary and a rapid increase in school enrolment. More teachers were recruited during the SSA, as reflected Teacher shortages had been a major problem since the early 1990s with new schools being built inpupil-teacher ratiosDecline equipment. sports and books, library storybooks, dictionaries, atlases, globes, subjects, different INR. Materials purchased with the grants included science mathematics kits, maps, kits, on charts was given agrant of 20,000 INR and each new upper-primary school was given agrant 50,000 available for every school for purchasing teaching-learning materials. Each new primary school distribution improved, though some irregularities remained. In addition, separate grants were made Under the became SSA, universally textbooks available in 2008, and the timeliness of textbook Increased inputs 8: Table high dropout rates and low retention rates, as reported in the JRM reports. were only one indicator of school quality, however. Other outcomes poor were seen in terms of of Class 5children over the six-year period 2002 between and low 2008. The learning achievements TableAs 8shows, there was an improvement of only 2percentage points in learning achievements levels of learning achievements and the findings of these surveys were that learning levels were low. in the quality of education. national The achievement surveys had gathered information about mid-termThe assessment of the SSA highlighted relatively progress poor in terms of improvements Quality Table 7: Decreasing social and gaps gender (2000–2010) Source: Selectededucationstatistics,relevantyears ST students SC students All students Girls Boys Environmental Studies Maths Language Proportion ofSTstudents Proportion ofSCstudents Proportion ofgirls Average score insubjects Learning Achievements of Class 5Children, 2002 and 2008 Indicators Indicators Enrolment in primary (Classes 1–5) Enrolment inprimary 2000–01 2000–01 52.3 45.2 40.7 41.9 39.7 Dropout ratesDropout 1to –Classes 5 18.6 45.1 9.7 Round 1(2002) 50.3% 46.5% 58.9% 2009–10 2009–10 34.5 29.3 28.9 27.3 30.3 11.2 19.5 50.0 Enrolment in upper-primary (Classes 6–8) Enrolment inupper-primary 2000–01 2000–01 68.7 60.7 53.7 57.7 50.3 Dropout ratesDropout 1to –Classes 8 15.7 42.9 7.2 Round 2(2008) 52.2% 48.5% 60.3% 2009–10 2009–10 57.8 51.3 42.4 44.4 40.6 18.4 48.2 8.6 29 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 30 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan trainings in cascade mode and also keep track of the total number of days of training received. of 2010, India had around BRCs and 6,600 70,805 CRCs (11th JRM, 2010). BRCs The were to conduct up of BRCs and CRCs, regular in-service training to primary school teachers was taken further. As District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) were established in the 1990s. With the setting Regular in-service teacher training of the became SSA. apart For decentralized teacher training, interventions. Education, Research and Training (SCERT) to monitor learning achievements and evaluate quality in 2008 under DFID to develop the capacity of members of the NCERT and the State Council of and were adapted and introduced in other areas. Technical The Cooperation Fund was set up Tamil Nadu, Nali-Kali in Karnataka and Nai Disha in Pradesh Uttar were promoted as practices good in mathematics and reading. Several state-specific initiatives such learning as activity-based (ABL) in school teaching in standards 1–2 and ensuring quarterly tracking of learning levels in standards 1–2 Programme strategies, providing amathematics laboratory in each school, providing remedial after- learning levels, developing graded reading materials, training teachers on Learning Enhancement learning levels in language, mathematics and science. Activities included establishing baseline Programme was allocated 2per cent of total district outlay of the SSA, with the aim of enhancing three-year Quality Plans of their as part annual work plans and budgets. Learning The Enhancement Planning for quality was emphasized, and states were encouraged to prepare comprehensive Language Improvement Programme in Andhra Pradesh. Children’s the and Bihar in programme Camp Summer the Uttaranchal, in system Grading School Improvement Programme in West Bengal, the Learning Achievement Tracking System in Orissa, the 3R’s Guarantee programme (EQUIP) in Maharashtra, the GAP in Gujarat, the Integrated Learning content (MHRD, 2011). Some specific innovations in improving learning levels included the several states, including Kerala, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, also developed state-specific curriculum toneed provide useful and relevant education. States revised and redesigned their and textbooks, development, by the NCERT, of the National Curriculum Framework in 2005, which emphasized the renewedThe focus on the quality of education in the second phase of the SSA led to the Changes incurricula,planning, training andmonitoring recruitment, but itsimpact on teaching quality is yet to assessed. be Right to Education aTeacher Act, Eligibility Test was introduced as anecessary process for teacher by the inadequate training of such teachers (SSA Edcil, 2009). With the implementation of the quality was questioned, however. It was argued by some that the positive impacts may offset be with positive for the enrolment effects and retention of girls. impact The of para-teachers on school lowered requirement for educational qualifications led to the recruitment of more female teachers, long-term in many states. It was found that increased recruitment of teachers lowered and PTRs, the was initially adopted as atransitional procedure, but during the SSA this came policy to adopted be contracts, at lower salaries than regular teachers (Pandey, 2006). Recruitment of contract teachers teachers individuals – without teacher education qualifications, recruited locallyshort-term on 1990sThe saw anew trend, following the Shiksha Karmi project’s approach of recruiting para- 9: Table Source: Selectededucationstatistics,relevantyears Primary PTR Primary Upper-primary PTR Upper-primary Pupil-teacher and ratios 2010–11) (2000–01 School levelSchool 2000–2001 43 38 2010–11 32 29 rate of 17.6 per cent and in real terms the expenditure increased at a rate of 10.5 per cent per annum. and2003–04 2010–11, total expenditure on elementary education increased at acompound annual During the SSA decade the central and state expenditures on education increased sharply. Between Increase ineducation expenditure and give directions to the SMC to facilitate implementation of the provisions of the Act. communities) and bring them into school. These institutions were also permitted to issue guidelines conducting household surveys to find excluded children (such as girls and children in marginalized VMCor and independently. responsibility Their was primarily in community mobilization and Panchayati Raj Institutions and local bodies were also assigned specific roles, of the as SMC apart formulate annual school development plans and undertake the implementation of local schemes. the decision-making unit rather than the national or local government. SMCs The were to expected governance systems with aSMC, with astandard membership. Schools were now considered to be After the enactment of the Right to Education all Act, states were asked to replace their existing indicating that the SSA had limitations. in many states. Other gaps in school functioning and school quality have also identified, been variousAs studies have indicated, both student and teacher absenteeism remained critical problems closer together in meeting educational needs. of parents was possible in these community bodies, the schools and the communities were brought the work of these bodies led to better infrastructure in many schools. Also, where the involvement expenditures, particularly those for civil were works, under the responsibility of these bodies, and were not always effective, but positive outcomes were seen in some areas. School development introduced, but also on the capacity of the members to undertake their responsibilities. bodies The effectivenessThe of these committees depended not only on the context in which they were the head teachers the of schools. in village communities, and existing relationships the between communities and local leaders with not smooth, however. These bodies were introduced in the context of existing hierarchies of power were elected rather than nominated. process The of establishing and developing these bodies was from socio-economically disadvantaged groups, were represented and that members of bodies and composition, but in most cases there was an attempt to ensure that parents, including parents (formed at the school or village level) varied from state to state in terms of their responsibilities, size accountable and to enable the whole schooling process to function more effectively. bodies The management committees and urban local bodies was to expected make teachers more activeThe involvement of community-based bodies such as PTAs, VECs, school development decade, but more quickly in some states than in others. Systemic changes in finance, administration and management in schooling took place over the SSA Institutional changes learning methods have remained rote learning and copying from the board or the textbook. suggest that this training has had limited impact on teaching practices, and the main teaching- significant emphasis has on been regular in-service training since 2008, independent evaluations expertise of the trainers (Approaches to School Support and Improvement, 2011). Report, Draft While were implemented. However, criticisms were made of the cascade mode of training and the lack of clusterThe resource persons were supposed to do follow-up of the trainings to ensure that they 31 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 32 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Table 11: Percentage distribution of SSA expenditure (2003–2010) increased in absolute terms, the proportion spent on these initiatives did not change significantly. share. It should noted, be however, that while the amounts spent on quality-improvement initiatives increased considerably, reflecting the higher salaries and recruitment drives, while civil had works alower at appraisal. With the enactment of the Right to Education allocations Act, for teacher salaries were estimated first than expenditures programme of share higher a were provisioning teacher and works civil SSA, the emphasis was on closing the infrastructure and human resource gaps; therefore, allocations for compositionThe of expenditure changed with the change in SSA priorities (Table 11). In the first phase of was consistently over 30 per cent of the total. government expenditures increased in the later years of the SSA programme, and state expenditure 79 per cent, but utilization as aproportion of funds released was higher. Both central and state 2005. In later years, the ratio of actual to planned expenditure fluctuated 65 between per cent and state governments also increased and reached the requisite 25 per cent of total SSA funding by increasing from 15 per cent in 2001–02 to around 70 per cent in 2006–07. contributions The of the relevant governments. expenditure The to approval ratio increased steadily over the years, however, expenditure was initially asmall proportion of the amount actually allocated and approved by the expenditure 2001–02 between and by 2006–07 Mukherjee et al. (2008) indicate that planned were made on the basis of annual plans drawn up by the states. Analysis of the allocations and Changes in financial allocation and utilization processes made the system more efficient. Allocations Table 10: education, Public in millions INR expenditure elementary on (2003–2011) Source: MHRD,AnalysisofBudgetedExpenditure Source: CalculatedfromSSAstatements on state-wiseandcomponent-wise allocationandexpenditure Note: *out-of-schoolchildrenandremedial teaching Civil works 2003–4 Year Teachers’ salaries 2005–6 EGS/AIE 2008–9 Teacher training 2009–10 (RE) Textbooks 2010–11 (BE) BRC/CRC Growth rate TLE Management costs Management Innovative activities Innovative Others Total Components 311,620 384,310 595,190 776,060 855,240 State 16.5% 2003–04 100% 36% 16% 10% 14% 5% 6% 3% 4% 3% 3% 117,510 194,820 208,930 250,660 Centre 52,030 21.7% Distribution ofexpenditureDistribution Total price) (current 2006–07 1,105,910 100% 46% 21% 10% 363,650 501,820 790,010 984,990 17.65% 7% 3% 3% 3% 1% 4% 2% Total (constant price) 2009–10 383,190 484,380 636,080 754,780 771,210 100% 24% 46% 10.5% 4% 2% 7% 3% 1% 3% 2% 8% implementation process. process. implementation organizations played an important role in supporting the government system in the decentralized and implementation processes were decentralized to school and community levels. CSOs and other ownership of the programme was in the hands of the central and state governments, the planning specific weaknesses, were implemented and monitored within the same framework. While the variousThe context-specific or location-specific schemes, which were initiated in states to address interventions in the elementary education sector that were merged into the programme over time. uniquenessThe of the SSA framework was its ability to absorb all existing investments and 33 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 34 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 6 influenced decision-making. At the Twelfth JRM, for example, the Annual Status of Education by CSOs were used to inform policy. Studies by CSOs were also shared at the biannual JRMs and various out researchto carry studies and findings the these and of other independent studies CSOs commissioned Limited, India Consultants Educational of Group Technical Support the and such as the NCERT, the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) parameters such as levels of teaching and the activity functioning of SMCs. Government institutions Researchframework. provided studies by CSOs useful information learning on outcomes, and on evaluation. work The of CSOs in this area was considered to crucial be for progress within the SSA with the state governments and independent initiatives, but also in terms of research and structureThe of the SSA allowed for CSOs to make acontribution not only in terms of partnerships schools. audits and their were reports useful in identifying the gaps in performance of the government CSOs also played an important role in state-level monitoring. Some of the CSOs conducted social members of PRIs and community-level education committees. involvement was also significant in community mobilization and in building the capacity of important role in developing training modules and imparting trainings at various levels. CSO administrators and resource persons at the district, block and cluster levels. CSOs The played an out the new roles and responsibilities envisaged at various levels, particularly among education An important barrier to the process of decentralization was the lack of required capacity to carry meals to urban schools in several states across the country. International for Society Krishna Consciousness, used large automated kitchens to provide midday meals in individual schools in rural areas, while large CSOs, such as the Naandi Foundation and the groups and self-help groups were involved in the preparation and distribution of hot midday These organisations also played acritical role in the Midday Meal Scheme. Small CSOs, women’s schools. They also worked with governments to provide assistive devices. as well as training teachers and supporting special educators to work with CWSN in the regular CSOs were involved in providing special education to CWSN outside the school environment, and children living in areas of civil strife. groups disadvantaged from girls dropouts, labourers, child children, migrant including children, of governments and CSOs were invaluable in reaching the “hard-to-reach” and “excluded” categories in AIE centres and through bridge courses and special camps. Partnerships the between state In terms of service provision, initially the role of CSOs was to provide education to specific groups and other organizations activities. of range a on education situation was impacted during the SSA period by government partnerships with CSOs of multiple actors. Prominent among them were the CSOs. In this we section focus on how the notedAs earlier, an important Shiksha of aspect the Sarva Abhiyan programme was the participation Implementation oftheSSA Partnerships inthe collaboration CSOsbetween and the state government on other development projects. For CSOs in Rajasthan worked with the government on education projects, there was significant Both state governments have long open been to collaboration with CSOs. While initially not many educational reform programmes implemented by the central and Rajasthan governments. system. Later, however, the SWRC’s work was up-scaled and several other CSOs were drawn into initiatives in education in the 1970s and 1980s, initially worked largely outside the formal education such as the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) and Digantar, which implemented micro Rajasthan have also worked in the education sector for many decades, but in this state the CSOs, of government middle-schools to implement their innovative science training programme. CSOs in by volunteer two organizations, the Friends Rural and Society the Kishore Bharati, onto the premises Madhya Pradesh government allowed the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme, conducted Second, both states have arich history of civil working society in education. early As as 1972, the larger share of central assistance than other states, through centrally sponsored schemes. socioeconomic background of these states). Given their “backward” status, these states received a in 1981. Both states have made remarkable progress in the last 30 years (see the appendix for a states. Female literacy was as low as 11 per cent in Rajasthan and 19 per cent in Madhya Pradesh role in elementary education, these large two states were on the list of educationally “backward” education was included in the concurrent list and the central government began playing agreater Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were selected for this case study for main two reasons. First, when contributions of CSOs in the states two of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. well as the historical evolution of education in each state prior to the SSA. This examines section the with and for what purposes. differences The the between states political reflect compulsions as of flexibility theThe SSA framework allowed the states to decide who they wished to collaborate rolesThe played by the CSOs in the implementation of the SSA were not the same in each state. andMadhyaRajasthan Pradesh ofCSOsinSSAImplementation6.1 Role in JRM). universities, all known for their “comprehensive and integral approach to quality (11 and equity” training courses by NGOs such as CARE India, Digantar and Bodh, as well as specific courses run by India for their Udaan project. JRM The also asked the MHRD to prepare aguide based on teacher CSOs that have demonstrated results, such as the 11-month bridge course implemented by CARE out-of-school children, and that this should informed be by an analysis of various approaches by a concept note on special training that would suggest strategies to address the learning needs of used to inform future action. For example, the Fourteenth JRM suggested that the MHRD develop children, and for training teachers were also valuable, with the suggestion that their experiences be in areas the by CSOs developing of Independent curricula efforts for courses bridge for out-of-school monitoring this. study on levels of teaching in schools activity and the lack functioning of effective of SMCs in raisedreport about its methodology. Sixteenth The JRM cited the findings of the PROBE Revisited ASER’s findings rolethe on providing of independent monitoring and system the issuesthe of the for their insights on learning achievements. Similarly, the Fifteenth JRM noted the importance of (ASER) and Student the Report Learning Study Education of Initiatives were found report useful th th 35 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 36 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan training. curriculum The was related directly to the local context and needs. teachers in three experimental primary schools were recruited locally and provided with ongoing primary education. It was based on asuccessful micro-initiative by the SWRC in Tilonia where the ShikshaThe Karmi project was launched in 1987 of the as state’s part strategy for achieving universal – pre-SSA 12: Table communities. several other interventions to improve the quality of education for children from deprived found that the collaborations were not limited to these government initiatives. They also initiated the collaborations the between CSOs and the state government. Interviews with the organizations evaluate the effectiveness of these projects, but describes the projects and focuses on the nature of major government initiatives in Rajasthan in the pre-SSA period. This does section not attempt to CSO-government partnerships began in Rajasthan’s education sector in 1987. Table 12 presents the Pre-SSA to collaborate with these organizations. presence doing excellent CSOs of work in development the sector, and government’s the willingness from anumber of factors including: the extremely development poor indicators in the state, the organizations. genesis The of these partnerships and their evolution during the SSA period derived Rajasthan is one of the pioneering states to have established partnerships with civil society Period duringtheSSA inRajasthan 6.2 Partnerships how future partnerships could more be effective. partnerships and the challenges for the CSOs involved, and we then suggest recommendations for to existing evaluations are made where relevant. Instead, we look at the important features of the sector during the SSA period. education The initiatives are not evaluated here, though references programme’s implementation. We will then look at government-CSO partnerships in the education first look at the education initiatives pre-SSA, to get an idea of the education context prior to the during the SSA period, and the critical role that CSOs played. Beginning with Rajasthan, we will sections two examine next The the education initiatives implemented in these states prior to and Together, (India workers) (grassroots 2002). programme enabled the evolution of women’s collectives under the leadership of the 1984, whose aim was to form women’s groups to work for the empowerment of women. The example, the Rajasthan state government launched the Women’s Development Programme in 1999 1998 1992 1987 Major initiatives involving government collaboration with CSOs in Rajasthan DPEP Janshala Lok Jumbish Shiksha Karmi Rajasthan IDA funding GOI and5UNagencies Rajasthan Government of SIDA, andthe GoI Rajasthan Government of SIDA andthe Funding Digantar, (andothers) Bodh Digantar Bodh, Mandir, Astha, Sandhan,Digantar. Parishad, Kalyan Urmul the SWRC, Trust, Sewa Gyan Bhartiya Vigyan Samiti, Rajasthan Vanvasi 52 CSOs–AjmerAdult Education Association, SWRC 28 CSOs–prominent were Sandhanandthe CSO/NGO/Foundation sathin . recruiting teachers locally. These teachers, referred to as “ coreThe of the initiative was the idea of tackling teacher absenteeism in remote areas through in small and remote communities and in urban slums, with community participation. Other major educational administration. programme The involved establishing anumber of alternative schools education. At the state level, the programme was implemented through the existing structures of It provided programme support to the states towards the achievement of universal elementary Janshala was acollaborative Government between effort of India and five United Nations agencies. 2003). (Ramachandran, effectively functioning involved and the work they could do. the By third and final phase of the project it had stopped provided funding, but the there was atime lag and this period of uncertainty the CSOs affected withdrew support because of the decision by the to GoI begin anuclear programme. DFID later Unfortunately, funding donor for this abruptly ended in project 1999 Swedish when the government education programme for tribal children and short-term residential camps for adolescent girls. unreachedof children, including provision the education non-formal of initiatives, such flexible as a Learning scheme. In addition, it introduced anumber of initiatives in response to the specific needs educationof through introduction the education competency-based of Minimum the or Levels of education infrastructure was provided to the village. project The also sought to improve the quality considered in danger of dropping out. micro-planning The process was initiated after the necessary used the Village Education Register to ensure regular school attendance by children who were planning process, while involved family and child monitoring by teachers and the VEC. VEC The faced by local communities in accessing schools. Asecond important innovation was the micro- identifying the location of schools and roads to establishing the social and cultural problems important Lok Jumbish innovations was the village mapping exercise, which went beyond most 2003). the of (Ramachandran, One Udaipur in Astha and Mandir Trust Sewa Bikaner, and in of primary education and women’s development, particularly the work SWRC in Tilonia, Urmul Lok Jumbish drew upon the previous work done by both the government and CSOs in the fields expanded to 75 in blocks 13 districts with 52 CSOs involved. the ratio of 3:2:1. Initially it began in five with blocks partnerships with five CSOs and by 1998 it had for children. It was funded by SIDA, the Government of India and the Government of Rajasthan, in would involve active learning and child-centred be –ensuring significant learning achievements completed primary schooling, and that this education was quality of good –meaning that it children and viewed education as atool for empowerment. It sought to ensure that all children and UNDP, 2002). project The placed special emphasis on the education of girls and disadvantaged mobilization of the community and facilitation of their participation in the education process (GoI LokThe Jumbish project, launched in 1992, aimed to achieve universal primary education through in all 32 districts of Rajasthan. phases. 1998–99, By the Shiksha Karmi project was functional in 2,715 villages in 146 of 237 blocks with SIDA contributing per cent 90 of the budget in the first phase and 50 per cent in the remaining Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). Shiksha The Karmi project had several phases, played important roles. project The was jointly funded by the Government of Rajasthan and the as well as periodic refresher courses (Rajagopal, 2000). Here, too, both the government and the CSOs being given intensive karmis training through included an programme induction project shiksha the and content of education to local needs and conditions” (GOI and UNDP, 2002). Key features of the bring about aqualitative change in primary education in remote villages by “adapting the form karmis responsibility recruiting of and monitoring shiksha the the local community. In this partnership, the local NGOs shared with the state government the shiksha karmis shiksha . In addition, the project sought to ”, were accountable to 37 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 38 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Over the next decade, the members of the organization the decade, of members the thorough a developed next the Over understanding of Digantar began working in the education sector in 1978 when it established asmall school in Jaipur. Teacher andstudentsinKGBV.© Sandhan. advise the management of Lok Jumbish. During the 1990s, members of Sandhan prepared around 110 research and discussion papers to mid-term correction of the programme, and helped in conducting 280 evaluation workshops. teachers and 4,700 school teachers. of the Lok part As Jumbish forums, Sandhan supported the provision of alternative schools. Sandhan was also involved in training 7,500 non-formal education government in designing multi-pronged its approach mapping, school of micro planning and as CSO served The aresource for agency the Lok Jumbish programme and supported the state In the Shiksa Karmi project, Sandhan was responsible for training the local teachers ( children from marginalized social groups and assisting them to enter into mainstream education. Sandhan’s origins date to 1983. Driven by avision of and equity justice, the CSO working started with initiatives. building in the 1990s, and emerged as valuable resource organizations to support new education implement. organizations The went through aprocess of experimentation, learning and capacity with these CSOs were illuminating and gave an insight to the complexities of the programmes they experience in working in the field have contributed significantly to education in the state. Discussions involved in. Although these three CSOs have followed different pathways, their knowledge and established aworking relationship with the that GoR has gone beyond the initial projects they were Sandhan, Digantar and Bodh, three of the CSOs interviewed during this case study. These CSOs These initiatives in Rajasthan were implemented with the contribution of several CSOs, including achievement. retention and enrolment, in equity overall dropout rates and raise achievement levels, and to bring about greater gender and social goal of the programme was to achieve universal primary education. Specifically, it aimed to reduce India and reached Rajasthan during the programme’s third phase, in 1999. in As other states, the DPEP, amajor centrally sponsored scheme of educational reform, was introduced in phases across state, district and block levels. special needs, setting up of block and cluster resource centres and strengthening capacities at the areas of intervention were in teacher training, multi-grade teaching, education of children with shiksha karmis shiksha ). ). level and multi-age in composition (Digantar, 2008). composition in multi-age and level multi- are that learning-groups in organized are schools their Hence, ways. different in and speeds freedom in terms of pace of learning, based on the understanding that that children learn at different and gain skills in self-learning and cooperation with fellow students. Furthermore, they give children from that of the formal public education system. They seek that children learn with understanding since then have running been their own schools. Their philosophy of education is radically different was always at the core of Digantar’s work and in 1986 they decided to set up schools in rural areas and educationproviding for children good-quality from deprived communities. Alternative education elementary education in general and classroom practices in particular. CSO focused The primarily on in a similar way to Digantar, by establishing a community school ( With afocus on improving the quality of education and reaching the most marginalized, Bodh began the government-run Rajiv Gandhi Prathmik Shiksha Mission in Madhya Pradesh. providing training and developing curriculum for the EGS schools and the alternative schools under government-managed projects, including Lok Jumbish, Janshala and DPEP. It was also involved in opportunity to replicate and scale-up its work (Jagannathan, 2001). (Jagannathan, work its scale-up and to replicate opportunity to work in itsalternative school initiative. Through negotiations with the government, Bodh had the well as aresource for agency the Rajasthan government. DPEP Rajasthan asked Bodh to train teachers areas. Over this period, Bodh became apoint of reference for improvement of teaching methods, as With the support of communities and the PRIs, Bodh was able to set up 27 bodhshalas children in the remote block of Thanagazi, with a special emphasis on access to education for girls. key The Block. objective of the Shikshanchal programme was making education accessible to all Umrein in programme Pahal Shikshak the and Block Thanagazi in programme Pahal Jan subsequent them. Shikshanchal was Bodh’s first rural intervention and reportedly laid the foundations for the refining and scaling up its innovative pedagogic strategies as well as on documenting and disseminating Within PESLE, Bodh worked with more than 30 bodhshalas India. CARE by funded also was programme Shikshanchal The Foundation. Khan Aga the and Union European the by funded were programmes These District. Alwar of Block Thanagazi in implemented (1999–2004), programme Shikshanchal Alwar, the and and Jaipur of districts the in implemented communities: the Programme for Enrichment of School Level Education (PESLE) (1999–2007), fromApart these government programmes, Bodh worked other on two initiatives in schools and Madhya Pradesh. this programme led to the development of the Janbodh programme, which was implemented in These were subsequently converted into formal government schools. lessons The learned from aiming to reach the urban deprived in four cities in Rajasthan, and set up 193 community schools. provide primary education to deprived communities (1998–2002). project The involved eight CSOs, Bodh was a partner in the eight-state Janshala initiative set up by the and GoI the United Nations to paved the way for future partnerships Bodh between and the state government. worked directly with government teachers and children. An evaluation showed positive results and in Jaipur city. Bodh’s resource teachers used the Bodh teaching methods and curricular materials, and focused on utilizing and assessing the effectiveness of the Bodh pedagogy in 10 government schools programme The Foundation. (1992–98), Khan Programme Aga the by Intervention funded was which Bodh’s first partnership with the Department of Education in Rajasthan was the Mainstream learning processes and teacher development. to understand and innovateopportunity in terms community of mobilization, contextual teaching- in five other urban slums in Jaipur. project The to set up these bodhshalas Jaipur in 1987. In 1989, Bodh received funding from the to GoI open five more community schools

In the 1990s, Digantar contributed to several across Jaipur and Alwar, and focused on on Alwar, focused and and Jaipur across bodhshala provided Bodh with the ) in an urban slum in in remote 39 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 40 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan with formal government schools to improvement bring about in education the they provided. involved up alternative setting education of courses bridge or modes ( prevalentthe towards attitudes female education and provide education for out-of-school girls. This to change aimed Pehchan agency. support technical the Potentials was Learning Digantar . Unfolding of Jaipurin blocks two District by Digantar and in Tonk and Banswara districts by the Centre for Learning Potentials in this project, which was titled Pehchan. programme The was implemented out-of-school girls in the state. UNICEF involved NGOs such as Digantar and the Centre for Unfolding In 2002, the approached GoR UNICEF to initiate aproject to provide education to the large number of in 2003–04, to provide academic support to itsown and other initiatives, if and when required. comparing the quality of schooling in various rural areas. Academic The Resource Unit was revived a large number of studies on education, ranging from evaluating grassroots-level interventions to launch of the SSA. organization The recovered from the crisis, however, and became involved in Digantar reportedly experienced “a phase mostly of survival” (Digantar, 2004) following the and foundations.donors were partnerships with the Rajasthan government and funding came from non-governmental Shikshanchal and PESLE, which continued until and 2004 2007, respectively. Both of these initiatives When the SSA was launched, Bodh was already involved with small-scale initiatives under year olds) and supported several other micro-initiatives. andreports, it also provided technical support to the Doosra Dashak Initiative (focusing on 11–20 decided to also as a research act centre by generating benchmark studies and needs assessment decided to itsfocus shift to the education of adolescents. With the advent of the SSA, Sandhan had Sandhan 6). p. 2000, In 2004. (Sandhan, agenda” fresh a gave Sandhan challenges emerging Sandhan went through areorganization process and the “analysis of the past experiences and the ways, but overall there was achange in the role of CSOs in these early years of the SSA. financial crunch. According to by the this, CSOs affected this situation them in affected different and new ones brought in. CSOs that of had these been part donor-funded projects faced an acute of uncertainty for the CSOs when the administrative structures of earlier projects were dismantled 2002 (Shiksha Karmi Project, Lok Jumbish and DPEP) were absorbed into it. This resulted in aperiod With the launching of the SSA, all the existing government projects initiated in Rajasthan before SSA PhaseI Computer classesinBodh.©CORD. pehchanshalas ) and working and working ) were not all discontinued. Partnerships continued in the form of small-scale interventions that were had come to stay. MOUs The established at the time the between state government and local CSOs In spite of the issues, with the introduction of the of REI multi-stakeholder a new type partnership to and equity the quality of basic education. interventions and ICT-related partners while the problems in Rajasthan schools were more related A major criticism was that emphasis was put on information and communication technology (ICT) goals, objectives and outcomes at the beginning of the initiative would have helped (GeSCI, 2009). replicated. According to GeSCI, astrong project management unit and aset of clearly articulated it soon became clear that the context of the REI was different very so the model could not be transitioning government and officials. staff Though it was inspired by Jordan Education Initiative, of partnerships were initiated and it became too broad-based to handled be by the frequently- to the REI and that in many ways it was an extremely ambitious undertaking. Alarge number complex initiative of this nature. A review by GeSCI points out that there was no real precedent Evaluations of the implementation of the REI highlighted the for need adequate leadership in a funding, duration, geographical spread and focus areas. Foundation, the Bharti Foundation and the IFIG. These partnerships took different forms in terms of that were working in many states, and non-profit wings of corporations, such as the Premji Azim local CSOs such as Bodh, large autonomous groups such as Pratham and the Naandi Foundation interventions for improving teaching-learning processes. latter The projects involved the work of including Microsoft, Intel, HiWEL and the Premji Azim Foundation) and socially-relevant, innovative processes for students and teachers (with from corporate support organizations and foundations included focused These technological interventions projects. educationalof of delivery for effective the schools in the state. state The government signed MOUs with multiple partners for various types REIThe was planned for aperiod of five years and the initiative aimed to cover around 5per cent of success of each of them so as to learn lessons from the experience. implementation, monitoring individual of within and reporting REIthe projects and evaluate the the state government while the other three funding partners were to facilitate and assist in the Industry, and the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI). objectives The were set by core funders of the REI were the the World GoR, Economic Forum, the Confederation of Indian multiple sources of funding, including from the the GoI, GoR, the private sector and donors. The from the private sector to support education in the state of Rajasthan. initiative The gathered through engaging global and local partners from CSOs as well as foundations and organizations REIThe was an innovative multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at improving the quality of education partnerships in the field of education. the Jordan Education Initiative, Rajasthan evolved for the REI its own definition of public-private the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January 2005. Based on the lessons learned from discussions that the then Chief Minister of Rajasthan had with business, political and CSO leaders at It was at this time that the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI) was launched. REI The emerged from of educationaspects quality, time was the publication of the new National Curriculum Framework. This focused on anumber of of all children in school to complete eight years of education. An important development at this shifted from improving access to schooling to improving the quality of education and retention planning for SSA II. noted As above, following these evaluations the focus of the SSA programme With the first phase of SSA funding coming to aclose, evaluation studies were carried out along with SSA PhaseII 41 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 42 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan produce educational on papers trends and gender differences in access to education. Inwork. this period, Sandhan The Resource Centre worked with the NCERT, UNESCO and UNICEF to analysis and research conducted and bodies international and national and organizations grassroots was not confined to this partnership with the government; it strengthened itsnetworking with learning. They later worked with KGBV residences in Bikaner and Ajmer districts. Sandhan’s work work they were involved in action research, pedagogy development, field testing and reinforced residences in Tonk and Udaipur districts in collaboration with the SSA and UNICEF. Through their to schools (on amonthly basis) as afollow-up to teacher training. group The worked in 10 KGBV support on-site continued Sandhan and teachers, head and teachers SSA functionaries, of building districts of Rajasthan. Its interventions included providing technical support in terms of capacity Sandhan, with itsnew focus on adolescents, decided to work with KGBV residences in selected children. to all education good-quality by several state governments and non-governmental organizations as aresource for providing experience of working with government schools and communities, Bodh has come to regarded be with emphasis on the role of PRIs and community organizations (NUEPA, 2008). With itsextensive This is shift likely very linked to the SSA mid-term review that prioritized the decentralization process, emphasis was later on community and PRI ownership and decentralized education development. of the SSA. Although the main focus was initially on learning processes and teacher training, the engagement of was itslarger part mandate as technical support for agency the urban component support for agency the development of the SSA programme’s Jaipur Million Plus City Plan. Bodh’s In the second phase of the REI, 2008–10, Bodh signed an MOU with the GOR to the be technical 2012). (Pachauri, schools government 60 in children urban disadvantaged processes in government schools, Janbodh focused on providing education good-quality for focused on facilitating the mainstreaming of innovative child-centred pedagogic practices and Children in Jaipur (the city Janbodh programme). Like Bodh’s programmes in the 1990s, which the Programme for Universalisation of Equitable Quality Elementary Education for Deprived Urban Bodh worked in partnership with the Rajasthan government under the REI on an initiative titled specific needs. model for achieving the EFA Goals and the “freedom of using innovation” (Draxler, 2008) to meet implementation. At the same time, this development brought in amulti-stakeholder partnership volunteer –based CSOs to being driven by amanagerial understanding of project design and of interventions and setting up of initiatives shifted from being driven by community –and of collaborationThis type was viewed as adramatic change in the education sector. modalities The implemented both on asmall scale and on alarge scale. Pratham and the Naandi Foundation, became more common after the REI. Such initiatives were organizations that multi-state had a presence, access reflecting to considerable funding, including to corporate partners, including the Premji Azim Foundation and the IFIG, and with autonomous government sector. Collaboration the between Rajasthan government and organizations attached planned and implemented by the CSOs in selected government schools, with funding from the non- to move towards greater compliance with the Act. scale up the changes in time. ashort governments The sought support from CSOs to enable them by this presented Act the state governments with many challenges as they had to implement and required changes transformative The organizations. community and teachers of building capacity Education required Act The Act. major changes in pedagogy and classroom processes, as well as Another change in government-CSO partnerships came with the to need implement the Right to in Hindi titled Shiksha Vimarsh, which discusses both and the practice theory of education. Certificate Programme in Foundations of Education. Digantar also publishes abimonthly magazine in three schools of itsown. It also has an Academic Research Unit through which it implements a that contribute to economic development. Digantar also runs the Alternate Education Programme endeavour to develop literacy and numeracy skills in children, or whether it should develop skills Knowledge in Jaipur. centre The initiates dialogues about whether elementary education is just an core activities were not confined to these projects. In 2011, Digantar set up aCentre for Teacher Thought in School, which was implemented in 100 schools of Phagi block in Jaipur District. Digantar’s research. Digantar was also of the Shiksha part Samarthan project, supported by Wipro Applying was to develop educating an of appropriate package tribal children and effective through action District through the Sandarbhshala project, which was funded by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. aim The In 2007, Digantar worked government in 44 schools in Shahbad and Kishanganj in blocks Baran develop “Pacesetter” schools. to strengthen the BRCs and CRCs for academic support and supervision and to support CRCs to the capacity of the DIETs to provide stronger academic support to government school teachers, state government, Digantar, Bhawan Vidya and Society the IFIG. objectives The were to strengthen (Ataru and Shahabad) of Baran District. This was amulti-stakeholder initiative that included the project was the Quality Education Programme, which began in 2006 in 78 schools in blocks two Digantar continued itsinvolvement with the state government through several projects. One such Use ofteachingaidsinKGBV.©Sandhan 43 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 44 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Bodh is also an important resource group for the special training programme for out-of-school and pedagogy in schools on apilot basis. This will later implemented be in all districts in Rajasthan. inputs. Bodh was given the task of developing CCE in such a way that it is of the curriculum part skills and technical expertise to implement the and Act chooses partners who can provide these organizations like Bodh. state The government is open to receive support in resources, administrative with large, well-funded organizations such as the Premji Azim Foundation as well as with local In implementing the requirements of the the Act, state government has ongoing partnerships with these resource groups and representatives of the education departments from several states. out-of-school children and special training for such children, as well as on implementing the CCE, role in involving experienced CSOs in SSA activities. UNICEF has organized regular consultations on the quality of education. Since the Right to Education was Act enacted, UNICEF has played amajor andthe new continuous textbooks, and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) as atool for improving were jointly piloted with UNICEF, including learning activity-based of theas new part syllabus and of the “State Rules” on the and Act the government has up-scaled anumber of interventions that state government’s most important partner. UNICEF supported the government in the formulation of the Right to Education According Act. to one of the informants for this case study, UNICEF is the UNICEF has long an been active partner of the and GoR plays an important role in the implementation resource persons. a direct role in this project but the IFIG used educationists from several CSOs and universities as schools in three districts to become compliant with the Right to Education NGOs Act. did not have in-service teacher training curriculum to facilitate the use of and these supporting textbooks, 150 teacher training, developing reading materials, for grades 1–8, revision developing the textbooks of state-wide programme were quite ambitious and included revision of the curriculum for pre-service implications for the way in which the interventions were embedded in the system. goals The of the and the IFIG, and that it was the state government that had the final say in key decisions. This had groups that included equal numbers of personnel from the state government (in SIERT and DIETs) level. Akey feature of this project is that all interventions were implemented and monitored by with asix-year project by the and GoR the IFIG that aimed to forward carry their work at the state One of the major initiatives in this period was to replace the Quality Education Programme in Baran KGBV studentsactinginaplay.©Sandhan Centre and Kishore Bharti. These organizations were already involved in areas such as farming and when apartnership was established the between state government and CSOs, two Friends Rural was the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Project (HSTP) (Mukund, 1988). This initiative began in 1972 One key project in Madhya Pradesh involving partnership the between state government and CSOs cent. of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad in raising the literacy rate in Ernakulam District in Kerala to 100 per literate and to enrol children in school. work The was based on the model provided by the work objective was to use kalajathas organization that aimed to empower communities through the spread of science and literacy. The central government, which worked closely with the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, an India-wide which resulted in increased demand for school education. This campaign was managed by the For both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Total Literacy Campaign, was an important programme, education sector earlier than the Rajasthan government, however. development sector. Madhya The Pradesh government began partnerships with CSOs in the with Rajasthan. noted As earlier, both states have had ahistory of CSOs working actively in the An examination of the education situation in Madhya Pradesh prior to the SSA finds some similarities period Pre-SSA SSA period inMadhya6.3 Partnerships Pradesh duringthe changes in education and policy the different forms of partnerships. and with CSOs from various states. SSA The framework was enough flexible to accommodate all the passing of the Right to Education and Act, their work was in collaboration with the state government projects. UNICEF played an important role in the implementation of schemes, particularly after the and one organization, in some cases there were multiple CSOs involved in the implementation of of the state government. While the partnerships were usually the between been state government of corporations. These partnerships were modified over time with changes in the education policies in the development sector across many states, and with large groups that are the non-profit wings implemented in collaboration with Rajasthan-based with large CSOs, autonomous groups working other changes came in with the passing of the Right to Education These initiatives Act. were initiatives came after the SSA mid-term review when the state government set up the REI, and as well as on retention in schools of children from vulnerable population groups. Some of these on improving classroom processes and the overall quality of education in government schools, systemic interventions (such as curricular reform). more The common interventions were focused third phases of the SSA period included focused interventions in technology-assisted learning and entered into partnerships with avariety of initiatives CSOs. The launched during the second and partnerships with CSOs. This process changed in around 2005, when the state government of termination of existing projects in primary education and with it the dissolution of existing To sum up, this discussed section how, with the launching of the SSA, there was an initial period government or indirectly by other groups who are partners of the government. for pedagogical support for implementing the Right to Education either Act, directly by the in partnership with the state government, are often asked to of consultations, part be particularly children. Resource persons from other CSOs with experience and technical expertise, who are not (performing arts groups) arts (performing to encourage communities to become 45 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 46 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Madhya Pradesh –pre-SSA period 13: Table partnership are listed in Table 13. Some of the key education programmes implemented in Madhya Pradesh with government-CSO of Madhya Pradesh were covered in Phase 2, beginning in 1997. Pradesh. These constituted almost half of the 42 districts covered in that phase. Another 14 districts In Phase I, DPEP was implemented in as many as 20 educationally “backward” districts in Madhya the state (NIEPA, 1997) and the state government decided to merge these projects two into DPEP. down in 1993 when the externally-funded centrally sponsored scheme DPEP was introduced in Department These projects were and implemented in the process in of five winding districts. Education Department and implemented in 14 districts, and Dhumkuriya, led by the Tribal Welfare In the late 1980s, other two projects on primary education were initiated: Roopantar, led by the keeping in mind the younger age of children compared to that in the (Raina, HSTP” 1997). to activity, be discovery and environment-based, incorporating …many child development criteria districts over aperiod of eight years, and was completed by 1994. basic approach “The continued developmentThe process was undertaken through working in schools 40 in tribal and non-tribal At the same time, an integrated curriculum (Khushi Khushi) was developed for the primary grades. government and the Department of Science and Technology. of Madhya Pradesh. Core funding for this organization in the first three years came from the state and Dewas districts. Eklavya had acoordination centre at Bhopal and field offices in several districts Hoshangabad Harda, in schools middle eight in classes science social materials for teaching-learning to take the work of the HSTP forward to cover the entire state and to develop curriculum and In 1982, it was decided to set up an autonomous organization, Eklavya, (Raina, 1997, Balagopal, 2003) CSOs. two the and Commission Grants costsThe of the expanded programme were taken up by these institutions as well as the University schools in Hoshangabad District, under the joint auspices of the state government and the NCERT. process. In 1977, five years after the programme was initiated, it was extended to cover 220 middle examinations; and the community and the block level educational officials were all engaged in the the groups had complete freedom in terms of curriculum, materials, books, teacher training and with the government only giving agrant of 25,000 INR to cover incidental expenses. Furthermore, An important feature of this partnership was that initial funding came from the CSOs themselves, includedproject scientists, educators and research students from leading institutions. science courses in 16 middle schools (formal schools) in rural Hoshangabad. Participants in the development providedcattle CSOs education. and non-formal two the Under project, new the 1997 1996 1996 1993–4 Year Major initiatives involving government partnership with CSOs in education in Education Guarantee Scheme Lok Abhiyan Sampark material education Sikhana – Seekhna Technical Group Resource Support DPEP Rajasthan GOMP GOMP GOMP GOI, GOMP IDA, European Union, Collaboration andFunding and teacher training. Digantar hadamajorrole incurriculum Vigyan SamithiandEklavya CSOs,Several includingBharatGyan had amajorrole. Eklavya’s Khushi onKhushi work earlier CSOs Several Several CSOs Several CSO/NGO/Foundation found, however, that the EGS schools were not necessarily based on demands voiced by the EGSThe innovation earned Madhya Pradesh aCommonwealth Innovation Award. Amicro-study provided by Digantar. schools The contributed to asurge in enrolments of children. in the field of alternative education. Training of the teachers of these schools was reportedly also curriculum for these schools was developed by Digantar, the Rajasthan-based CSO with experience teach in the new schools, and more than 13,000 local teachers were recruited (Srivastava, 2010). The opened 1997 between and 2002. Local teachers, selected by the communities, were appointed to and no school was within one kilometre walking distance. More than 25,000 EGS schools were the power to demand aschool if the community had at least children 40 who were out of school Education Guarantee Scheme. This scheme, which was launched in 1997, gave local communities schools. It led to an important initiative to improve access to schooling in remote rural areas, the LokThe Sampark Abhiyan created demand for schooling while revealing gaps in the provision of 2006). that only 70 per cent of communities in Madhya Pradesh had access to aprimary school (Mehrotra, and out of school, with the intention of persuading parents to send their children to school. It found councils) and literacy activists and organizations. project The collected data on children in school CSO partnership implemented by teachers, elected samitis members of the panchayat in 1996, which involved a door-to-door survey and mobilization campaign. It was a government- settingThe up of the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission was followed by the Lok Sampark Abhiyan (LSA) villages. remote in children tribal for particularly equity, access and in changes Shiksha Mission. This mission and interventions the under DPEP brought much-needed about state. state The government brought its primary education programme under itsown Rajiv Gandhi Around the same time, in 1994, the government introduced the Panchayati Raj system into the up. set districts). Consequently, astate-level training structure, going from the block to the cluster level, was new education initiatives would implemented be in the entire state (in both DPEP and non-DPEP Another significant decision policy of the accepted TRSG, by the state government, was that all government. the new package was not an experimental of aparticular effort group, but aproduct of the state methods and contents of Seekhna-Sikhana closely resemble those of Eklavya’s Khushi-Khushi, but (Raina, 1997). This process was followed to prepare the “Seekhna-Sikhana” package. approach, The teachers in such schools, utilising at least one year for the development of material for each class” developedbe “through field in work, experimental schools and with the active participation of the in “some radical initiatives” policy (Raina, 1997). TRSG decided The that material for each class was to and educationists, supportive of innovations, from all over the country and the state, which resulted elementary education sector of the state (Raina, 1997). This group included eminent practitioners Resource Support Group (TRSG), an apex policy-making for body academic decisions for the entire At this time, the Government of Madhya Pradesh decided to set up astate-level Technical required for these contract teachers, who were locally recruited and paid at low rates. of DPEP was the gradual introduction of para-teachers. Pre-service teacher education was not An important development in the education sector in Madhya Pradesh during the implementation many other states on account of the large number of districts covered in this state. education. Madhya Pradesh received alarger proportion of the resources under DPEP compared to notedAs earlier, DPEP was awidespread and systematic to achieve effort universal primary (local village 47 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 48 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan organization, Samavesh, which subsequently also worked in partnership with the state government. In 2003, the members of Eklavya who wanted to focus on rural development set up aseparate learners from the most marginalized tribal communities living in remote areas of Madhya Pradesh. previously was generation to objective for first provide An important system. the of out support education.for This primary positively retention impacted children, of including those from groups of teaching-learning through child-friendly activities, which was the basis of itsPrashika curriculum the quality of the child’s experience in school and Eklavya’s pedagogical approach remained one use in classrooms including for science teaching at high school level. Eklavya’s work was focused on as areas for curricular research. In the SPKs, Eklavya worked on developing materials for teachers to in private schools in Bhopal and also set up Shiksha Protsahan Kendras (SPK), centres that functioned or work in private schools, but in 2002 it had to rethink itsrole. From 2002 onwards, Eklavya worked Eklavya’s strategy had to been work within the government system rather than itsown schools start to up-scaled. be classes in 1,000 middle schools in 15 districts in the state, and the social science classes were ready government was abruptly ended by the government. At the time, Eklavya was providing science middle school children. Unfortunately, in 2002 Eklavya’s long-standing partnership with the state innovative science and social science teaching-learning children school for primary activities and (Seekhna Sikhana). Furthermore, large numbers of teachers had become skilled in the use of toled government the developing own innovative its teaching-learning of package materials with Eklavya in the previous decades also played acritical role. This collaboration fruitful very had by the work that had done been during phases 1and 2of DPEP. state The government’s partnership Elementary education in Madhya Pradesh at of the the SSA start programme was greatly influenced SSA phaseI entrench aframework to facilitate elementary education. forneed an education committee at the panchayat parents, teachers, local bodies and government; the for need aPTA in every primary school; and the parental responsibility for compulsory education until achild is 14; rules and responsibilities of It covered arange of issues, including the fundamental right of every child to basic education; This was the Madhya Pradesh Jan Shiksha Adhiniyam, alegal framework for education reform. GovernmentThe of Madhya Pradesh formulated an important institutional framework in 2002. system, and thereby have greater impact in the long run. the state (the SCERT). This allowed initiatives under DPEP to more be firmly embedded within the implementing DPEP (Rajkiya Shiksha Kendra) was integrated with the education department in administrativeThe and managerial structure also helped. In Madhya Pradesh, the agency and implementation for the state as awhole. education projects. In addition, the state government was proactive very in education planning thus had, for along period, abureaucracy that was well-versed in handling externally-funded to other sectors during the decade beginning in 1993–94 (Ramachandran, 2004). Madhya Pradesh important role. Many bureaucrats in the state’s education sector were reportedly not transferred reform to highly engaged bureaucrats in the central and state governments. Continuity played an Representatives of CSOs interviewed for this study attributed progress towards educational upgraded to formal primary schools. 2010). Nevertheless, the EGS schools were reported to function well, and most were subsequently community and that the local teachers were not always accountable to the community (Srivastava, level. It represented to establish an effort and including with organizations that had worked in other states, including Pratham and the Naandi Naandi the and Pratham including states, other in worked had that organizations with including education department to facilitate this and policy MOUs were signed with several organizations, to bring in more funding to achieve this. state The government set up a partnership cell within its with CSOs. This was in response to the pressure to push harder towards meeting the SSA goals and In the second phase of SSA, the Government of Madhya Pradesh decided to expand its partnerships SSA phaseII support. financial limited generated (Nair,however, programme the Overall, 2004). programme Limited is reported to have adopted 100 schools in Madhya Pradesh for five years under this in supporting aschool in avillage in Madhya Pradesh. Imperial The Tobacco Company of India interested in promoting school activities, developing school infrastructure and becoming apartner facilities in the state. It had an online facility for donations from any individual or organization Programme, which aimed to raise resources from the global community to improve education At this time, the state government launched an innovative programme named the FundaSchool government is reported to have ended this programme abruptly, however. with itsLearning Guarantee Programme, which was based in Datia and Vidisha districts. state The It was during the early years of the SSA that the Premji Azim Foundation entered Madhya Pradesh Action Aid and Samavesh, to enable them to run similar programmes. working. For example, the MVF trained of other staff NGOs in Madhya Pradesh, including of staff impactThe of the MVF extended beyond itsdirect involvement in the 21 districts in which it was the project. to2004 2007. But the short-term nature of each MOU brought in uncertainty for the CSO and for one-year MOU with the MVF and extended this twice, resulting in athree-year partnership: from had implications for the sustainability of the initiative, however. government The initially signed a sources, which reportedly allowed it to maintain alevel of autonomy from the government. This were borne by the state government. through MVF paid The itsstaff raising funds from other persons acted as facilitators and catalysts (Wazir, 2007). costs The of the residential bridge courses While the state government had ownership and responsibility for the programme, the resource programme. MVF the Madhya Pradesh subsequently set up additional residential bridge courses based on the success of number of residential and non-residential bridge courses had set been up. Government The of of these districts found that the partnership was successful (Wazir, 2007). March By 2007, a large MVF implementedThe the project in 21 districts in the state. A study based on visits to three personnel and the teachers in the residential bridge camps, which was provided by the MVF staff. Andhra Pradesh were an important of the project, part as was orientation and training for the were taught acondensed curriculum, developed especially for this purpose. Exposure visits to These courses prepared children for entry into formal school in an age-appropriate grade. Children for children through providing aresidential bridge course over aminimum period of nine months. child labour and into schooling; and it provided a model of asafe and stimulating environment child has aright to education; it engaged with multiple stakeholders to draw children away from Pradesh was powerful for many reasons: it was based on the non-negotiable principle that every and mainstream out-of-school children in Andhra Pradesh. project The implemented in Madhya work in Madhya Pradesh. MVF had The successful very been to reduce in itsefforts child labour Pradesh invited the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) from Andhra Pradesh to During the first phase of SSA, in what appears to a unique be case, the government of Madhya 49 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 50 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were mitras organised for the bal mitra teaching, jan and one mitra bal One districts. Harda and that sought to improve the quality of education provided in 50 schools in 50 villages of Dewas At this time, Samavesh signed a five-year MOU with the government to implement a programme India. within in creativepart projects and regular workshops. Funding came from non-governmental sources were set up to provide avenue for children, teachers and the community to read, discuss and take 10 clusters distributed over three in blocks Hoshangabad. Libraries and a number centres of activity another MOU with the government to implement aproject to provide libraries to communities in adopted was one of on-site resource support to BRCs, CRCs and schools. In 2010, Eklavya signed programme in classes 3to 8in 22 government primary and middle schools in Bhopal. method The capacity within the community to support education in schools. Eklavya efforts implemented the objective of the programme was to build the capacity of government school teachers and to build to improve pedagogy using the NCF of 2005 and the Right to Education as Act abasis. The In 2006, Eklavya signed athree-year MOU with the state government to implement aproject was put in place to enable regular monitoring of the impact of the project. groups such as Bodh from Rajasthan were brought in as consultants; and adata collection system members were chosen on the basis of their interest in being of such part an initiative; local resource accountability to the community as 50 per cent of their came salary from the community; the VEC practicesgood noting: worth it began with abaseline mitras survey, the bal involvement of the local community with the functioning of the school. programme The had many dropout rates, particularly among children from marginalized communities, and to strengthen the programmeThe was in line with the objectives of the SSA –to increase enrolment and reduce before and after school. This component was piloted in one block. Another component of the programme (Nanhi Kali) was to provide additional teaching for girls, education committees would and who producing work on work plans for improving schools. the school and also invested in selecting individuals who would willing be to of active village part be learning methods and pedagogy. programme The set up an Academic Support Centre in each through implementing including activities, demonstrating use the child-friendly of teaching and ( staff quality of education in 338 schools in three in blocks atribal-dominated district (Sheopur). Project programme implemented under this partnership, which continued until 2010, aimed to improve the NaandiThe Foundation also signed an MOU with the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2005. The Pradesh. September 2007. 2008, By Pratham was running the reading campaign in only 17 districts in Madhya three different heads of administration appointed over the 18 months Marchbetween 2006 and for subsequent years. This was because of lack of continuity in the management of the SSA, with after school hours. While the programme had some success, the initial MOU was not extended young volunteers. Under this programme, reading classes were held in the community before and states. programme The aimed to improve reading achievements through providing schools with Pradesh in 2005 to implement aprogramme that it had already put into practice in several other Pratham, aCSO that originated in Mumbai, signed an MOU with the government of Madhya partnerships only lasted for periods short of time, however. Foundation, as well as with local organizations such as Eklavya, Samavesh and Muskaan. These bal mitras bal ), recruited from within the community, provided academic support to teachers was appointed to supervise anumber of schools. Regular trainings was placed in each of these schools to using start activity-based jan mitras jan and jan mitra jan . The bal mitra bal and teams organised PTA teams organised had some degree of the state felt it was in a fortunate position, in which highly reputed groups come to the government deliverableswith them about processes. and reporting According to government representatives, stateThe government set up a partnership cell to review proposals from CSOs and to negotiate were trained during the academic year 2007–08, and 2,500 teachers were trained in 2009–10. were identified and training was conducted year-round at these centres. More than teachers 4,000 technology academy was established in Bhopal. Seven regional-level computer training centres and faculty DIET teachers. This programme was known as Project Shiksha, and under it an information An example of apublic-private partnership was Microsoft’s work in the area of computer training for districtstwo of Madhya Pradesh –Betul and Tikamgarh. initiative was that implemented by the CSO “Room to Read”, which provided libraries to schools in Hoshangabad. Its focus was supporting the education of children from tribal communities. Another For example, the Sir Howard Albert Memorial Trust worked in government schools in Kesla District in Several other government-CSO partnerships were operational in Madhya Pradesh during this period. Students inMuskaan.©CORD. Tata Trust, 2013). This project played an important role in meeting the SSA’s objectives. also provided remedial education to children with learning difficulties in 19 public schools (Sir Ratan slums in Bhopal and was able to positively impact the lives of children from over households. 800 It alternative schools for children who were not able to attend formal schools. Muskaan worked in 10 teachers and students, as well as improving learning levels at all primary grades. They also set up would feel welcome there. Their intervention was aimed at improving interactions between work in government schools to make necessary changes so that children from slum backgrounds children into government schools, the children soon dropped out. Therefore, Muskaan decided to are ahigh proportion of out-of-school children. Muskaan found that even when they enrolled these During the second phase of the SSA, Muskaan worked in slum communities in Bhopal where there India. within the schools and itsactivities. Funding for this initiative also came from non-governmental sources meetings in the schools to sensitise parents and teachers regarding monitoring and supporting 1

See www.ssa.mp.gov.in/partners 1 51 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 52 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan but new partnerships are still an option when the CSOs have access to funds for their activities. individual technical as individuals experts rather than entering into partnerships with organizations, block level coordinators. In recent years the Government of Madhya Pradesh has preferred to hire and district and teachers communities, of building capacity and schools, intochildren formal duration. These partnerships mostly focused on improving school quality, bringing out-of-school government entered into a number of partnerships with CSOs, but these tended to of short be in partnership for along period with Eklavya and later with the MVF. Subsequently, the state of service and government playing pro-activity important roles. state The government worked to highly engaged bureaucrats in the state government (and at the central level), with continuity before and during the SSA period. Progress towards better educational outcomes is attributed Summing up, this examined section the education projects and partnerships in Madhya Pradesh Foundation was in the pipeline for apartnership to facilitate CCE in government schools in the state. example is for the Development Sports initiative. Nevertheless, as of 2014, an MOU with Premji Azim government now prefers to bring in technical expertise by hiring consultants as required. One government no longer pursues partnerships. Rather than partnering with organizations, the Madhya Pradesh state government officials interviewed of this as part study observed that the implementing the Right to Education Act. a project implemented by Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi to mobilize communities with regard to schools; the Paraspar Scheme, which has established 13 schools for out-of-school children; and based on successful initiatives such as the KGBV residences; aprogramme to set up “Platform” Ongoing initiatives include aproject to establish women’s hostels, CWSN hostels and girls’ hostels, of MayAs 2014, the Madhya Pradesh government has partnerships with only a few organisations. programme in the KGBV residences. life skills education in all middle schools in the state, and for the supports Development Sports girls’ education, which includes the roll-out of the “Meena” radio programme. UNICEF also supports in terms of academic support functions. Another area of collaborative work is the programme for building their leadership and management skills; and assists to strengthen efforts CRC and BRC schools in the state, has continued. UNICEF also capacity supports building of school principals, In addition, UNICEF’s support to learning the activity-based programme, reaching about 16,000 It also for provides development the support child-friendly of schools as models for replication. initiatives related to generating awareness of the among Act parents and the wider community. asserved resource organisations. UNICEF both supports pilot interventions and up-scaling of implementation of the Right to Education UNICEF Act. has worked with various CSOs, which have more on providing technical support for strengthening and policy programmes related to the In recent years UNICEF has reduced itsrole in the implementation of projects and has focused usethe mapping of tools. upper-primary schools. UNICEF was also involved in training academic at the cluster staff level on supporting the rollout learning of activity-based in primary schools and the initiation of ALM in achievements of children with special focus on disadvantaged groups. UNICEF was involved in SMCs to monitor schools. overall The focus is on quality improvement and improving learning include providing education to disadvantaged groups and building PTAs of capacity the and UNICEF closely works with the state government in Madhya Pradesh. Key areas of UNICEF’s work reports. annual their by indicated not fund their but work, there is cost-sharing involved in the work of the larger foundations, as to work in partnership with it. Heads of the CSOs interviewed reported that the government does single and multiple donors; in afew cases funds were provided from the SSA. more as well activity-based as more relevant to children’s needs. projects The were funded by both groups to able be to access schooling and in improving the quality of schooling through making it faced in the education sector. Their work was valuable in chalking out pathways for vulnerable challenges the handling in expertise their and approaches innovative their of because important Though many interventions were reduced in scale over time, these organizations continued to be set up formal resource centres. Eklavya) and Digantar Sandhan, (Bodh, organizations these of Some foundations. and CSOs other the state governments, providing technical expertise to the central and state governments and to restructuring of CSOs at the time. Later, several of these CSOs became resource organizations for but on a smaller scale, while other partnerships ended because of various factors, including internal governments in the education sector underwent achange. Some of these partnerships continued, First, the partnerships the between CSOs who had along history of working with the state observed in these states. two partnerships state between governments and CSOs. Subsequently, interrelated two processes were previousThe sections explained that the launch of the SSA led to major changes in the nature of and the setting up of CCE. the development of child friendly schools, the provision of special training for out of school children, partnership with UNICEF and CSOs to implement the Right to Education which Act, translated into and provide leadership training. During the SSA period, both the state governments worked in providetextbooks, in-service teacher training, develop a pre-service teacher training curriculum, aided learning in schools. Government The of Rajasthan also entered into partnerships to develop of-school children, training of community bodies and PRI members, and introducing computer- education to children in remote areas and to special-needs children, bringing in and retaining out- Government-CSO partnerships were initiated in various spheres, including providing good-quality relevant and useful. Funding usually from came independent sources. work plan, the government agreed to the partnership only if the intervention was considered to be approached government the with proposals and, following discussions design project the of and CSOs seeking collaboration. Organizations that were keen to work with the state government in rare cases such as the partnership with the MVF, state governments generally did not approach Responses from interviews with government officials indicate that during the SSA period, except role in terms of intervention of the type and their spread across the state. it set up apartnership cell to facilitate partnerships, during in the SSA period CSOs played alimited government appears to have less been open to large-scale and long-term partnerships. Although initiatives with partners that could provide financial and technical resources. Madhya The Pradesh children from vulnerable population groups, but also to partnerships to implement larger-scale open to collaborations not only for micro-interventions in schools and interventions to bring in Rajasthan government, with the REI, set up anew institutional mechanism for collaboration. It was somewhat different approaches towards partnerships under the same overall framework. The above sections, it was demonstrated that the states two of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh took notedAs earlier, the SSA framework encouraged interventions by CSOs in many areas. In the andMadhyaSSA inRajasthan Pradesh 6.4 Key features duringthe ofthepartnerships 53 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 54 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for regular recruitment and training of new staff. CSOs, however, leaving these CSOs in a situation in which there was high turnover staff and a need with experience in working in education projects existed. Staff were sometimes poached from local developed the capacities of many teachers and education workers. Thus, of local a pool people states, CSOs had been working at the school and village levels for decades and in the process had donors recruited with appropriate staff skills and experience to implement the activities. In both Another model included the donor organization as an implementing partner. In such situations, the experience in the sector, as seen in initiatives supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust in Madhya Pradesh. while adonor provided the resources. Here, the implementing organizations could CSOs be with cases MOUs were signed the between state government and the implementing organization, modelsThe of collaboration differed according to the roles of the funding organization. In certain of these groups to the people of the states in which they worked. a result of their limited experience) and the second concern was the to need ensure accountability first concernThe was regarding the outcome of the initiatives implemented by the new entrants (as Interviews with members of local CSOs who did have such experience revealed main two concerns. experience in other states, they often had little experience in working in the education sector. While the new organizations that partnered with state governments during the SSA period had CSOs during the SSA period. begun working in other states in the pre-SSA period, this became acommon attribute of most initialthe Among CSOs), in working (local, educationthe CSOs non-profit sector while had some IFIG. the and Foundation Naandi the Pratham, MVF, Premji Foundation, the including Azim the and Madhya Pradesh governments had MOUs with organizations that had worked in other states, SSA period was that they had experience in working in anumber of states. Both the Rajasthan An important characteristic of the new organizations that entered the education sector during the couldor access funds from non-government sources, had an advantage. money own their had which organizations, larger the and important was support greater financial of the SSA, alarge-scale nationwide programme, the nature of the activities changed. Access to with the government in the planning and implementation of the programmes. But with the advent were smaller, funds were available from government sources, and small CSOs could collaborate Such changes the reflected wide scope of the SSA programme. In the pre-SSA period, initiatives emphasis on measurable deliverables during the SSA period brought in agreater level of accountability. for larger-scale opportunities macro This offered perspective. For all activities. organizations, stronger for initiatives in the social sector. These organizations also had significant management expertise and a the Corporate Social Responsibility Bill, which requires companies to utilize aproportion of their profits These organizations often had access to greater funding, particularly following the implementation of organization. included foundations These to links with corporations direct foundations. and non-profit SSAThe period also saw the emergence of government collaborations with adifferent of type important as it allowed their experience in the education sector to taken be on board. research and evaluation. Their inclusion in the process of new formulations policy was vitally of the and Act, in monitoring its implementation. They also contributed to through policy action the pushing through the formulation of the Right to Education in Act, the ongoing implementation role in the consultative process around the development of the NCF, during the process advocacy for made amajor contribution to formulation policy during the SSA period. They played asignificant fromApart interventions in the schooling system, the CSOs that partnered with state governments system tosystem prevent such abrupt decisions from occurring again. organizations such as Eklavya ended suddenly. It is aconcern that there has no been change in the working within the education sector. This case study showed that even partnerships with robust of political pressures, changes in the mindsets of government officials or the transfer of bureaucrats personalities involved. Thus, many CSOs were vulnerable to being closed down as aconsequence clearly spelled out. stability The of the partnerships was dependent very on state priorities and the renewedbe at relatively intervals short and the parameters on which decisions were taken were not with the uncertainty that was an inherent of these part partnerships, as the agreements to needed While CSOs are appreciative of the space they were given to they work, reported that they struggled some space to make interventions, while keeping the reins of control firmly very in their hands. before and during the SSA period. Under the SSA framework, the state governments gave them This case study showed that CSOs in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were extremely active both Challenges forCSOs groups. marginalized socially of children issues with the government, particularly related to child development and child rights, especially for by CSOs and community groups. On the basis of such monitoring, CSOs will able be to raise critical are implemented. Compliance with the Right to Education is Act acritical area for social auditing CSOs must also play awatchdog role when micro-initiatives are scaled up and when new policies to scale. them take work on pilot projects, to put in place innovative micro-initiatives and to look for opportunities to providing support to government initiatives in this way, it is also important that CSOs continue to members to enable decentralized planning, implementing and monitoring of interventions. While with CSOs have been valuable in building the capacities of administrators, teachers and community many of whom are unlikely to have any support from their homes or communities. Partnerships faced, and continue to face, an enormous task in providing education good-quality to all children, out of school, thus not completing the minimum eight years of education. state The governments significant children of proportion are from vulnerable population groups and are at risk dropping of of scale, however. States such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have diverse populations and a uphold the right to education for all children. challenge The facing the states was not only one stateThe governments also large needed amounts of resources and support to ensure they could methods of evaluation such as CCE. state players to provide the necessary expertise in areas such learning as activity-based and in new more child-friendly and improve education quality at all levels. State governments looked to non- passingThe of the Right to Education put Act pressure on the state governments to make schools to Education inimplementingtheRight Role ofCSOs Act capacity of involved. all staff managerial and technical the building and using to simultaneously contributes programme the cooperation allows for the strengthening of government institutions at state and district levels, as and from the foundation. Although setting up such groups has itschallenges, this of type implemented and monitored by groups composed of equal numbers from the of staff government is acurrent partnership the between and GoR the IFIG on aproject in which the activities are a lasting impact. Equal involvement of the parties often resulted in the outcomes. best An example and ownership of the programme. This influenced whether the intervention would able be to make An important issue in the government-CSO partnerships was the extent of government involvement 55 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 56 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that would allow the partners to work effectively. partners by having asystem in place for regular reporting and renewal, and to ensure conditions terms of micro- and macro-initiatives. State governments could also facilitate the work of their CSO It would useful be for the state governments to look proactively at what CSOs can contribute in tostruggle get funding. from government, the organizations with corporate without the strong links regularly sector could weaken their ability to achieve their goals. But in the absence of long term financial support government because of the possibility of unnecessary bureaucratic interventions and delays that CSOs interviewed for this case study reported that they were of accepting wary funding from the 7 the education initiatives implemented in the field. Furthermore, the state governments did not governments’ decisions, however, leading to uncertainty among CSOs, with negative impacts for vision and capacity. approval The of the projects and their continuity depended largely on the that partnerships with the state governments depended largely on the CSO partners’ motivation, extent of managerial and administrative expertise at the level of implementation. study The found compulsions and on the bureaucrats at the central and state government levels, as well as on the always smooth or positive, however. degree The and duration of cooperation depended on political CSOs towards achieving the goals of the SSA programme. process The of collaboration was not This case study found that the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments used partnerships with crucial roles in providing states with to the opportunity address the needs of diverse populations. local governments, and the decentralization of education administration of the as SSA, apart played is difficult. constitutional The amendment of 1992, which gave recognition and responsibilities to within these states and within the districts mean that implementation effective of macro-initiatives Both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are large states. diversities The and inequalities that exist changes that took place in the education sector. own strategies according to their priorities. This was flexibility also useful in the context of the rapid primarily acentrally sponsored scheme, framework its flexible allowed the states to develop their local requirements, while seeking to meet uniform norms and targets. Thus, although the SSA was of flexibility theThe SSA framework allowed state governments to adapt strategies according to identificationneeds, funding new of sources, and monitoring and evaluation at various levels. decentralized planning process, modification of initiatives to suit local contexts and meet local uniqueThe feature of the programme is itsinclusive and framework, flexible which promotes a successfully scaling practices. up good that is coordinated at the macro- and micro-levels, and example agood of amechanism for programme is being showcased as a promising one because the SSA is example a good of planning Although the SSA has not remedied all the issues faced in the education sector in India, this their jobs, and this percolated down to the teachers in government schools. degree of social inequality reduced the degree of accountability that public servants had towards lagged behind not just because of the size of the problem in these states, but also because the high of progress was not uniform. Less developed and large states, which had larger gaps in capacity, While all states showed progress towards achieving the EFA Goals over the SSA period, the extent in termsdone improving of learning achievements and transition rates are still high, as are student and teacher absenteeism, and there is much to be has not yet achieved. been Also, while school participation levels have increased, dropout, retention decades in most states of India. In spite of this progress, however, universal elementary education of the SSA in this process found that there have impressive been achievements over the past two This case study’s examination of the progress in India towards achieving the EFA Goals and the role Programme Lessons fromtheSSA 57 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 58 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan achieved through “quick strategies, fix”’ but instead long-term need focused interventions. previous decade. Thus, this case study of the SSA programme shows that the EFA Goals cannot be SSAThe also built on the experience gained from implementing various education initiatives in the in the preceding decade and itsevolution cannot separated be from those earlier developments. SSAThe was developed on the basis of lessons learned from the experiences in educational reform interventions. their partners the main shortfalls in terms of achieving the EFA Goals and the priority areas for future mistakes from the past. Another valuable action would for be state governments to discuss with would also away be to ensure lessons learned are disseminated and new initiatives do not repeat to learn about each other’s work and could lead to better cooperation and on alarger-scale. This of information the between various partners and the government would allow the organizations inter-state sharing of micro-level experiences. Astate-level forum to enable interaction and sharing to facilitate the analysis of this data and, thus, the programme had alimited scope for intra- or While SSA data and government documents were compiled and shared online, little has done been learners. retaining and schools to prioritize improving the quality of education, the emphasis shifted towards improving formal and AIE to improve access to schooling in remote areas, but when evaluations indicated the need to change strategies when considered necessary. For example, several states initially relied on EGS A valuable feature of the SSA programme was itscapacity to assess the impact of itspolicies and yet existed for sufficient time for their impact to fully be evaluated, however. the education field may not have always had the desired outcomes. These partnerships have not this study also indicate that state government collaborations with the new organizations entering make optimum use of the technical expertise they could access through local findings CSOs. The of Female MaleRatioisnumberoffemales per1000males.Comparablestate-level dataisnotavailableforallyears. Note: HDIhasbeenreportedfor23Indian States,whileGDIhasbeenreported for35IndianStates. Source: UNDP Table A1: Table and 2011 for the states two and for India as awhole. Table A1 presents the measurements of socio-economic indicators for selected years 2004 between than average female-male ratios and alower than average GDI in both states. Rajasthan being abit better Pronounced off. gender bias in both states is in reflected the lower issues are more pronounced in Rajasthan. GDI The tells aslightly different story, however, with and gender discrimination. lower The female literacy rate in Rajasthan that the fact gender reflects lowThe levels of female literacy in both states the states’ reflect histories of educational deprivation Female literacy is below the average for India in both states, with Rajasthan’s rate markedly lower. India, except with regard to ratio the poverty (Table A1). and the Gini coefficient of inequality. But Rajasthan’s economic indicators are below the average for of economic indicators such as per capita Net State Domestic Product, headcount the poverty ratio the Gender Development Index (GDI). Rajasthan is slightly than better Madhya off Pradesh in terms statesThe are among in the India worst off as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI) and Madhya Pradesh. states The are contiguous. density of population in Rajasthan is thus lower, at 201 per square kilometre, as opposed to 236 in located in central India and has alarger population than Rajasthan, with 72 million inhabitants. The population of million. 68 Madhya Pradesh is also alarge state, with an area It sq. of 300,000 km. is Rajasthan is alarge state in of the India. north It has an area square of 340,000 kilometres and a – RajasthanandMadhyaPradesh Annex: Socioeconomicbackground Urban Rural Gini coefficient,2004–5 2009–10 Poverty headcountratio(%), Product (Rs),2009–10 Per capitaNetState Domestic Female Ratio, 2011 Male Female Male rate (%),2011 Literacy (out of35) GDI Rank GDI (2006) HDI Rank (out of23) HDI Rank HDI (2007–8) Socio-economic indicators Socio-economic in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and India Indicators Rajasthan 23,669 0.526 0.434 0.37 0.25 24.8 52.7 80.5 (31) (17) 926

Madhya Pradesh 19,736 0.516 0.375 0.39 0.27 36.7 60.0 80.5 (33) (20) 930

33,731 India 0.590 0.467 0.37 0.30 29.8 64.6 80.9 940

59 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 60 India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan the period 1991–2001 and continued in the decade 2001–2011 (Figure A1). decades.past two Rajasthan saw some growth in the period 1981–1991, but ahuge jump came in A comparison of literacy rates since 1981 is an indication of the progress and improvement over the Despite the issues, both states have made considerable progress towards achieving the EFA Goals. employment outside the home so do not to need complete school. also plays arole in taking girls out of school, as do expectations that girls will not sent be for paid household chores and because the education of girls is not seen to of value. be Early marriage at all, or are only allowed to study up to acertain grade because they are required at home to do (as few local girls have the necessary qualifications). Girls in many districts are either not enrolled parents to send girls to school), but also add to of the being difficulty able to recruit female teachers labour. Social norms against girls’ education require the recruiting of female teachers (to encourage regularly throughout the year, as they are often required to work during times of peak demand for of discrimination. Poverty makes it difficult for children of disadvantaged groups to attend school teachers feeling alack of accountability to their students and even in allowing schools to sites be teachers) to the perennially absent qualified teachers. Social inequality in these states plays arole in more facilities. It was in Rajasthan that aCSO first developed a“functional alternative” (hiring of local to find qualified teachers in rural and remote areas, as most teachers prefer to live in areas with persons to provide academic support to teachers at the sub-district levels. It is particularly difficult to find qualified persons DIETs who can staff and provide training for teachers; and to find qualified formal schooling system, it is difficult to keep them there. It is achallenge to recruit qualified teachers; While there has been some success in bringing in children from disadvantaged groups into the more likely to access the more poorly resourced schools. classroom shortages. Micro-studies indicate that it is children from the marginalized groups who are some schools well-staffed with empty classrooms while other schools have enormous teacher and education quality, of good however. There are enormous variations in government schools, with not appear to sufficient pressure from civil to society ensure that all children are able to access problemthe providing of education to children from excluded groups is There enormous. does states two The are extremely interesting from the point of view of EFA. In both states, the size of Backward Classes”) have able been to wrest some degree of power. in states such as Pradesh Uttar and Bihar where groups in the middle of the caste hierarchy (“Other the government. Control over the government rests with the upper castes (Jaffrelot, 2009), unlike and urban levels, local communities are not empowered enough to demand accountability from though Madhya Pradesh was the first state to set up three-tier local governing bodies at the rural Scheduled Tribes and 15.4 per cent was classified as Scheduled Castes. Indications are that even by tribal groups. In 2011, more than (21.1 one fifth per cent) of the population, was classified as Madhya Pradesh has several highly forested areas and has a large number of districts populated Madhya Pradesh was once India’s largest state but reduced in size with the creation of Chhatisgarh. groups. disadvantaged historically among empowerment particularly in rural areas, and were led by vigorous members of civil society, which led to some In the past decade, the Right to Information movement and social audits were active in Rajasthan, proportion of minorities (8.5 per cent in 2011). (13.5 per cent in 2011), both of which are disadvantaged groups. Rajasthan also has asubstantial the state’s population belongs to the Scheduled Castes (17.8 per cent in 2011) and Scheduled Tribes dominant groups in ahighly stratified (Jaffrelot society and Robin, 2009). Asubstantial proportion of Rajasthan has ahigh level of social inequality. Politically, the upper caste groups and the Jats are the Figure A3: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, respectively. states had similar rates (Figure A3). In 2011, the literacy rates were 67 per cent and 71 per cent in Literacy rates in Madhya Pradesh were higher than those in Rajasthan in 1981, but by 2001 the two Source: Censusdata Figure A2: Rajasthan. in than higher literacy rates in Madhya Pradesh grew more sharply than male literacy rates (Figure A2) and remain Growth in male literacy rates in Madhya Pradesh was slower than in Rajasthan, but the female Source: Censusdata Figure A1: Source: Censusdata 100 100

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Promising EFA Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region

INDIA India: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

UNESCO Bangkok Office Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110, Thailand Email: [email protected] Website: www.unesco.org/bangkok Tel: +66-2-3910577 Fax: +66-2-3910866 CASE STUDY