BASIC FEATURES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

1.0 BASIC FEATURES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an effort to universalise elementary education by community-

ownership of the school system. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education
all over the country. The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for
improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned
quality education in a mission mode.

1.1 WHAT IS SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

 A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.

 A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
 An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
 An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School
Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees,
Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous
Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary
schools.
 An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the
country.
 A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.
 An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education

1.2 AIMS OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all
children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge social,
regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the
management of schools.

Useful and relevant education signifies a quest for an education system that is not
alienating and that draws on community solidarity. Its aim is to allow children to learn
about and master their natural environment in a manner that allows the fullest harnessing
of their human potential both spiritually and materially. This quest must also be a process
of value based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other's well
being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan realizes the importance of Early Childhood Care and Education and
looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum. All efforts to support pre-school learning in ICDS
centres or special pre-school centres in non ICDS areas will be made to supplement the
efforts being made by the Department of Women and Child Development.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

 All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-
School' camp by 2003;
 All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007
 All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010
 Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education
for life
 Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at
elementary education level by 2010
 Universal retention by 2010
1.4 WHY A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTATION (AND NOT A GUIDELINE)

 To allow states to formulate context specific guidelines within the overall

framework
 To encourage districts in States and UTs to reflect local specificity

 To promote local need based planning based on broad National Policy

norms
 To make planning a realistic exercise by adopting broad national norms.

The objectives are expressed nationally though it is expected that various districts and
States are likely to achieve universalisation in their own respective contexts and in their
own time frame. 2010 is the outer limit for such achievements. The emphasis is on
mainstreaming out-of-school children through diverse strategies, as far as possible, and on
providing eight years of schooling for all children in 6-14 age group. The thrust is on
bridging of gender and social gaps and a total retention of all children in schools. Within
this framework it is expected that the education system will be made relevant so that
children and parents find the schooling system useful and absorbing, according to their
natural and social environment.

1.5 SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN AS A FRAMEWORK AND AS A PROGRAMME

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has two aspects – I) It provides a wide convergent
framework for implementation of Elementary Education schemes; II) It is also a
programme with budget provision for strengthening vital areas to achieve universalisation
of elementary education. While all investments in the elementary education sector from
the State and the Central Plans will reflect as part of the SSA framework, they will all
merge into the SSA programme within the next few years. As a programme, it reflects the
additional resource provision for UEE.

1.6 BROAD STRATEGIES CENTRAL TO SSA PROGRAMME

• Institutional Reforms - As part of the SSA, the central and the State governments
will undertake reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system. The
states will have to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education
system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools,
financial issues, decentralisation and community ownership, review of State
Education Act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers,
monitoring and evaluation, status of education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged
groups, policy regarding private schools and ECCE. Many States have already
carried out several changes to improve the delivery system for elementary
education.
• Sustainable Financing - The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is based on the premise that
financing of elementary education interventions has to be sustainable. This calls
for a long -term perspective on financial partnership between the Central and the
State governments.
• Community Ownership - The programme calls for community ownership of school-
based interventions through effective decentralisation. This will be augmented by
involvement of women's groups, VEC members and members of Panchayati Raj
institutions.
• Institutional Capacity Building -The SSA conceives a major capacity building role
for national, state and district level institutions like NIEPA / NCERT / NCTE / SCERT
/ SIEMAT / DIET.
• Improvement in quality requires a sustainable support system of resource persons
and institutions.
• Improving Mainstream Educational Administration - It calls for improvement of
mainstream educational administration by institutional development, infusion of
 new approaches and by adoption of cost effective and efficient methods.
• Community Based Monitoring with Full Transparency - The Programme will have a
community based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information
System (EMIS) will correlate school level data with community-based information
from micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school will be encouraged to
share all information with the community, including grants received. A notice board
would be put up in every school for this purpose.
• Habitation as a Unit of Planning - The SSA works on a community based approach
to planning with habitation as a unit of planning. Habitation plans will be the basis
for formulating district plans.
• Accountability to Community - SSA envisages cooperation between teachers,
parents and PRIs, as well as accountability and transparency to the community.
• Priority to Education of Girls - Education of girls, especially those belonging to the
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and minorities, will be one of the principal
concerns in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
• Focus on Special Groups - There will be a focus on the inclusion and participation
of children from SC/ST, minority groups, urban deprived children disadvantaged
groups and the children with special needs, in the educational process.
• Pre-Project Phase - SSA will commence throughout the country with a well-planned
pre-project phase that provides for a large number of interventions for capacity
development to improve the delivery and monitoring system. These include
provision for household surveys, community-based microplanning and school
mapping, training of community leaders, school level activities, support for setting
up information system, office equipment, diagnostic studies, etc.,
• Thrust on Quality - SSA lays a special thrust on making education at the
elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum,
child-centered activities and effective teaching learning strategies.
• Role of teachers - SSA recognizes the critical and central role of teachers and
advocates a focus on their development needs. Setting up of Block Resource
Centres/Cluster Resource Centres, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities
for teacher development through participation in curriculum-related material
development, focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all
designed to develop the human resource among teachers.
• District Elementary Education Plans - As per the SSA framework, each district will
prepare a District Elementary Education Plan reflecting all the investments being
made and required in the elementary education sector, with a holistic and
convergent approach. There will be a Perspective Plan that will give a framework of
activities over a longer time frame to achieve UEE. There will also be an Annual
Work Plan and Budget that will list the prioritized activities to be carried out in that
year. The Perspective Plan will also be a dynamic document subject to constant
improvement in the course of Programme Implementation.

1.7 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN SSA

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan takes note of the fact that provision of elementary education is
largely made by the government and government aided schools. There are also private
unaided schools in many parts of the country that provide elementary education. Poorer
households are not able to afford the fees charged in private schools in many parts of the
country. There are also private schools that charge relatively modest fees and where
poorer children are also attending. Some of these schools are marked by poor
infrastructure and low paid teachers. While encouraging all efforts at equity and 'access to
all' in well-endowed private unaided schools, efforts to explore areas of public-private
partnership will also be made. Government, Local Body, and government aided schools
would be covered under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, as is the practice under the Mid Day
Meal scheme and DPEP. In case private sector wishes to improve the functioning of a
government, local body or a private aided school, efforts to develop a partnership would be
made within the broad parameters of State policy in this regard. Depending on the State
policies, DIETs and other Government teacher-training institutes could be used to provide
resource support to private unaided institutions, if the additional costs are to be met by
these private bodies.
1.8 FINANCIAL NORMS UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

 The assistance under the programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be on a 85:15
sharing arrangement during the IX Plan, 75:25 sharing arrangement during the X
Plan, and 50:50 sharing thereafter between the Central government and State
governments. Commitments regarding sharing of costs would be taken from State
governments in writing.
 The State governments will have to maintain their level of investment in
elementary education as in 1999-2000. The contribution as State share for SSA
will be over and above this investment.
 The Government of India would release funds to the State Governments/Union
Territories only and instalments (except first) would only be released after the
previous instalments of Central government and State share has been transferred
to the State Implementation Society.
 The support for teacher salary appointed under the SSA programme could be
shared between the Central Government and the State government in a ratio of
85:15 during the IX Plan, 75:25 during the X Plan and 50:50 thereafter.
 All legal agreements regarding externally assisted projects will continue to apply
unless specific modifications have been agreed to, in consultation with foreign
funding agencies.
 Existing schemes of elementary education of the Department (except National Bal
Bhawan and NCTE) will converge after the IX Plan. The National Programme for
Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid-Day-Meal) would remain a distinct
intervention with foodgrains and specified transportation costs being met by the
Centre and the cost of cooked meals being met by the State government.
 District Education Plans would inter–alia, clearly show the funds/resource available
for various components under schemes like PMGY, JGSY, PMRY, Sunishchit Rozgar
Yojana, Area fund of MPs/MLAs, State Plan, foreign funding (if any) and resources
generated in the NGO sector.
 All funds to be used for upgradation, maintenance, repair of schools and Teaching
Learning Equipment and local management to be transferred to VECs/ School
Management Committees/ Gram Panchayat/ or any other village/ school level
arrangement for decentralisation adopted by that particular State/UT. The village/
school-based body may make a resolution regarding the best way of procurement.
 Other incentive schemes like distribution of scholarships and uniforms will continue
to be funded under the State Plan. They will not be funded under the SSA
programme.

The major financial norms under SSA are:

NORMS FOR INTERVENTIONS UNDER SSA

INTERVENTION NORM
1. Teacher  One teacher for every 40 children in
Primary and upper primary
 At least two teachers in a Primary school

 One teacher for every class in the upper

primary
2. School / Alternative schooling • Within one Kilometre of every habitation
facility
• Provision for opening of new schools as per
State norms or for setting up EGS like
schools in unserved habitations.
3. Upper Primary schools/ Sector • As per requirement based on the number
of children completing primary education,
 up to a ceiling of one upper primary
school/section for every two primary
schools
4. Classrooms • Ø A room for every teacher in Primary
& upper Primary, with the provision that
there would be two class rooms with
verandah to every Primary school with at
least two teachers.

• A room for Head-Master in upper Primary

school/section
5. Free textbooks • To all girls/SC/ST children at primary &
upper primary level within an upper ceiling
of Rs. 150/- per child

• State to continue to fund free textbooks

being currently provided from the State
Plans.
6. Civil works • Ceiling of 33% of SSA programme funds.
• For improvement of school facilities,
BRC/CRC construction.
• CRCs could also be used as an additional
room.
• No expenditure to be incurred on
construction of office buildings

• Districts to prepare infrastructure Plans.

7. Maintenance and repair of school • Only through school management
buildings committees/VECs
• Upto Rs. 5000 per year as per specific
proposal by the school committee.

• Must involve elements of community

contribution
8. Upgradation of EGS to regular • Provision for TLE @ Rs 10,000/- per school
school or setting up of a new • TLE as per local context and need
Primary school as per State norm • Involvement of teachers and parents
necessary in TLE selection and
procurement
• VEC/ school-village level appropriate body
to decide on best mode of procurement
• Requirement of successful running of EGS
centre for two years before it is considered
for upgradation.

• Provision for teacher & classrooms.

9. TLE for upper-primary • @ Rs 50,000 per school for uncovered
schools.
• As per local specific requirement to be
determined by the teachers/ school
committee
• School committee to decide on best mode
of procurement, in consultation with
teachers
 • School Committee may recommend district
level procurement if there are advantages
of scale.
10. Schools grant • Rs. 2000/- per year per primary/upper
primary school for replacement of non
functional school equipment
• Transparency in utilisation

• To be spent only by VEC/SMC

11. Teacher grant • Rs 500 per teacher per year in primary and
upper primary

• Transparency in utilisation
12. Teacher training • Provision of 20 days In-service course for
all teachers each year, 60 days refresher
course for untrained teachers already
employed as teachers, and 30 days
orientation for freshly trained recruits @
Rs. 70/- per day
• Unit cost is indicative; would be lower in
non residential training programmes
• Includes all training cost
• Assessment of capacities for effective
training during appraisal will determine
extent of coverage.

• Support for SCERT/DIET under existing

Teacher Education Scheme
13. State Institute of Educational • One time assistance up to Rs. 3 crore
Management and Training • States have to agree to sustain
(SIEMAT) • Selection criteria for faculty to be rigorous

14. Training of community leaders • For a maximum of 8 persons in a village for

2 days in a year - preferably women

• @ Rs. 30/- per day

15. Provision for disabled children • Upto Rs. 1200/- per child for integration of
disabled children, as per specific proposal,
per year
• District Plan for children with special needs
will be formulated within the Rs. 1200 per
child norm

• Involvement of resource institutions to be

encouraged
16. Research, Evaluation, supervision • Upto Rs. 1500 per school per year
and monitoring • Partnership with research and resource
institutions, pool of resource teams with
State specific focus
• Priority to development of capacities for
appraisal and supervision through
resource/research institutions and on an
 effective EMIS
• Provision for regular school mapping/micro
planning for up dating of household data
• By creating pool of resource persons,
providing travel grant and honorarium for
monitoring, generation of community-
based data, research studies, cost of
assessment and appraisal terms & their
field activities, classroom observation by
resource persons
• Funds to be spent at national, state,
district, sub district, school level out of the
overall per school allocation.
• Rs. 100 per school per year to be spent at
national level
• Expenditure at State/district/BRC/CRC/
School level to be decided by State/UT,
This would include expenditure on
appraisal, supervision, MIS, classroom
observation, etc. Support to SCERT over
and above the provision under the Teacher
Education scheme may also be provided.

• Involvement of resource institutions willing

to undertake state specific responsibilities
17. Management Cost • Not to exceed 6% of the budget of a
district plan
• To include expenditure on office expenses,
hiring of experts at various levels after
assessment of existing manpower, POL,
etc.;
• Priority to experts in MIS, community
planning processes, civil works, gender,
etc. depending on capacity available in a
particular district
• Management costs should be used to
develop effective teams at State/
District/Block/Cluster levels

• Identification of personnel for BRC/CRC

should be a priority in the pre-project
phase itself so that a team is available for
the intensive process based planning.
18. Innovative activity for girls' • Upto to Rs. 15 lakh for each innovative
education, early childhood care & project and Rs. 50 lakh for a district per
education, interventions for year will apply for SSA
children belonging to SC/ST
community, computer education
• ECCE and girls education interventions to
specially for upper primary level
have unit costs already approved under
other existing schemes.
19. Block Resource Centres/ Cluster • BRC/CRC to be located in school campus as
Resource Centres far as possible.
• Rs. 6 lakh ceiling for BRC building
construction wherever required
• Rs. 2 lakh for CRC construction wherever
required - should be used as an additional
classroom in schools.
• Total cost of non-school (BRC and CRC)
 construction in any district should not
exceed 5% of the overall projected
expenditure under the programme in any
year.
• Deployment of up to 20 teacher in a block
with more than 100 schools; 10 teachers in
smaller Blocks in BRCs/CRCs.
• Provision of furniture, etc. @ Rs. 1 lakh for
a BRC and Rs. 10,000 for a CRC
• Contingency grant of Rs. 12,500 for a BRC
and Rs. 2500 for a CRC, per year

• Identification of BRC/CRC personnel after

intensive selection process in the
preparatory phase itself.
20. Interventions for out of school • As per norms already approved under
children Education Guarantee Scheme & Alternative
and Innovative Education, providing for the
following kind of interventions
• Setting up Education Guarantee Centres in
unserved habitations
• Setting up other alternative schooling
models

• Bridge Courses, remedial courses, Back-to-

School Camps with a focus on
mainstreaming out of school children into
regular schools.
21. Preparatory activities for • As per specific proposal of a district, duly
microplanning, household recommended by the State. Urban areas,
surveys, studies, community within a district or metropolitan cities may
mobilization, school-based be treated as a separate unit for planning
activities, office equipment, as required.
training and orientation at all
levels, etc.

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