Samagra Shiksha Scheme

Source: prameyanews.com

The Union Government has fabricated the Samagra Shiksha Scheme for a holistic improvement of school education. It is a comprehensive programme for the education sector expanded from pre-school to the twelfth standard.

Presently, this scheme covers over 156 million students, 1.16 million schools, and 5.7 million government and aided schools’ teachers.

Samagra Shiksha Scheme was proposed to improve the usefulness of schools measured by equal opportunities and impartial learning output. This scheme encompasses Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education.

The objectives of Samagra Shiksha Scheme are listed below:

• Providing value education and improving learning outcome
• Uplifting vocational education
• Ensuring integrity, equality and inclusion in all levels of schooling
• Mitigating social as well as gender gap in the education sector
• Providing a minimum benchmark for the quality of schooling standard
• Supporting State Governments to implement RTE Act or right for free and compulsory education for minors
• Upscaling several agencies for an improved teacher training

Samagra Shiksha is an integrated scheme for proper school education, which comes with the following features:

Comprehensive Approach to School Education

• This scheme treats education holistically as a sequence from pre-school to class 12.
• It included pre-school and higher secondary for the first time.

Reform in Supervision and Administration

• This scheme provides coordination in implementation with a uniform administrative structure.
• It allows State Governments to step into the implementation process.

Concentrating on Value Education

• Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Scheme prioritises quality education by improving teaching skills.
• It enhances the abilities of teachers and institution heads.
• This scheme empowers SCERTs and DIETs to provide teachers’ education.
• It also supports Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan to enhance science and math education.
• This scheme promotes skill development at the primary level through Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat Programme.
• It also offers library grants to schools.

Uplifting Digital Education

• This scheme backs ‘Operation Digital Board’ in all the secondary schools for more than 5 years.
• It promotes digitalisation of education by upgrading the infrastructure.
• This programme empowers digital initiatives such as Shagun, UDISE, etc.
• It enhances the infrastructure of information and communications technology at all school levels.

Promoting Skill Development, Physical Education and Sports

• This scheme makes industry-based vocational education an integral part of class 9-12.
• It strengthens the Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
• Samagra Shiksha Scheme provides sports supplies to every school.

Focusing on Girls Education and Inclusion

• It promotes self-defence training for girls from upper primary to all the way up to higher secondary level.
• This scheme upscales the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.
• It enhances the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ programme.
• This programme provides grants for textbooks, uniforms and children with special requirements.

Strengthening the Schools

• This scheme provides transport facilities to children of classes 1 to 8.
• It offers grants to the school for upscaling infrastructure.
• This scheme has a provision for supporting Swachhta programmes in schools.

Mitigating Regional Disparity in Education

• This scheme uplifts the LWE affected districts, Educationally Backward Blocks, Special Focus Districts, and border areas.
• It also covers the 117 ambitious districts shortlisted by Niti Aayog.

The benefits of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme are listed below.

• This scheme provides enhanced teachers’ training.
• Schools get library grants of ₹ 5,000 to 20,000.
• This scheme increased the composite school grants from ₹ 14,500-50,000 to ₹  25,000-1,00,000.
• The Government will allocate the grants according to the enrollment.
• It provides smart classrooms, DTH channels and digital boards.
• The Government increased the allocation for uniforms from ₹ 400 to 600 per child annually under RTE Act.
• It also increased the annual grant for textbooks from ₹ 150-250 to 250-400 per child under RTE Act.
• Girl child with special needs receives a monthly stipend of ₹ 200 from class 1 to 12.
• The Union Government increased the annual grant for Children with Special Needs from ₹ 3,000 to 3,500 per child.
• It provides sports equipment worth ₹ 5,000 to Primary, ₹ 10,000 to Upper Primary and ₹ 25,000 for Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools.

The primary objective of Samagra Shiksha Scheme is to emphasise the enhancement of teaching and technology in education. The Government launched this scheme in 2018 and extended it till 1st April 2021 for its excellent outcomes. Moreover, the Government has further extended this scheme till 31st March 2026 with a financial expenditure of ₹ 2,94,283.04 crore.