The national flagship programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has contributed a lot towards making Mizoram one of the topmost States in the country in the education scenario, State Government officials said here today. "The SSA Mission has really brought about a paradigm shift in the field of primary education. It has helped us achieve the top slot. We have almost achieved total enrollment in primary education,' State Education Minister Dr R Lalthangliana said. Officials have attributed the success of the SSA in Mizoram to the participatory mode with which the programme has been implemented. "Village councils and local-based NGOs participate in the programme which in return has given them the feeling of ownership.' "We can proudly say that the government schools have now gone back to the public,' SSA Mizoram officer on special duty Robert Romawia Royte told UNI here today. However, even though every village in the state now had a primary school and village education committee to watch over it, the Mizoram SSA has reached a deadlock in its mission to universalize elementary education in the entire State. "About 2,000 children are believed to be still out of schools. They are from the residual or the hardcore groups. They belong to the nomadic families of Chakmas along the Indo-Bangla border, migrants and religious sects who do not allow their children to study,' the Royte said. However, the SSA will leave no stone unturned to give education to even this group of children, he asserted. One of the strategies were mobile schools meant for children of the nomadic Chakma families, are living in remote jungles. "Sometimes we mobilized the NREGS, the 100 days' employment, to lure the parents to send their children to the mobile schools,' SSA coordinator Irene Lalruatkimi said. Education volunteers and remedial teachers were being engaged to carry out the task. Besides formal education, the SSA Mission has instilled the spirit of sports in the minds of children. Under the "innovative programme', it has set up as many as 153 sports academies for various sports disciplines across the State. "The achievement of our sports academies are quite encouraging. Our academies' students have brought home a good number of national and regional level medals in judo, taekwondo, boxing and football,' Hmingsanga, an instructor at the SSA sports academy said. Recently, the Mizoram SSA signed a memorandum with US-based International Alliance for Youth Sports (IAYS) to introduce "Game On ! Youth Sports' to become the first Indian State to join the global sports promotion programme.

WITH the current year dotted with elections, the UPA government has decided to introduce the Right to Education (RTE) Bill in the Budget session of Parliament. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who overrode the reservations expressed by a high-level group about the need for a Central legislation, would like the Bill to be introduced now. The ministry of human resource development (HRD) is in the process of preparing a Cabinet note, which is due to be taken up for consideration in the next two weeks. The Bill may find a mention in finance minister P Chidambaram's Budget speech too. A working committee headed by A K Rath, secretary, school education and literacy, HRD ministry, is finalising the draft of the legislation. The RTE will provide the blueprint for making systemic changes in the elementary education sector. The ministry is clear that the RTE is not another way to garner more funds for elementary education, but an opportunity to reform and rationalise the system. The promise of systemic reforms will also help to counter the growing lobby for the privatisation of school education. The private school lobby has consistently called for the opening up of the education sector, allowing "for-profit' organisations to play a role on the grounds that government schools can't provide quality education. A legislation geared to providing quality and norms for it would counter this move. Both issues of increased fiscal outlay and legal responsibility are being addressed. Many of the expenses of operationalising the RTE are being taken care of by the funding for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and teacher's education. A more realistic and lower expenditure bill is being arrived at by dovetailing the expenses of the Right to Education Bill, and the SSA and teachers' education. The fear of increased volume of public interest litigations (PIL) mandating the Centre to sanction and fund infrastructure far beyond its financial capability is being addressed by setting realistic targets for states to roll out the implementation of the Bill. For the enabling right to education, it has been a long and arduous journey. More than five years have gone since Parliament passed the 86th Constitutional Amendment giving every child between the age of 6 and 14 years the right to free and compulsory education (Article 21 A). However, Article 21 A could not be notified as the enabling legislation had not been enacted. Work on the RTE was started by the NDA government soon after Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill in December 2002. The first delay came when the NDA was voted out of power in May 2004. Work on the RTE was then taken up by the Kapil Sibal committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). The financial implications for the Sibal draft was worked out by the then National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA). As per these estimates, the government would require to spend a minimum of Rs 3,21,196 crore over six years to implement the legislation

Creating basic infrastructure in schools was the most important goal of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the government's most ambitious scheme to provide education to all children in the 6-14 age group. Reports, however, point out that the government has a long way to go as a vast number of schools are still devoid of basic facilities like classrooms, drinking water and toilets. According to a report by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NEUPA), under the human resource development ministry, about 30 per cent elementary schools in the country do not have a pucca building for holding classes. This when the government has been consistently increasing the allocation for the scheme. The government has been collecting a 2 per cent cess on all taxes from 2004-05 to fund the SSA and the mid-day meal scheme. Statistics from all schools imparting elementary education (more than 80 per cent of them are government schools) show that a primary school has on an average only 2.8 classrooms for classes I-V. The minimum requirement is five rooms. The number is 4.1 for all schools (primary and upper primary). An upper primary school requires around eight classrooms. The survey found that of the existing rooms, only 72.96 per cent are in good condition, the other being vulnerable to adverse weather conditions like rain. The data show that more than 60 children sit in one room in more than 16 per cent schools This is in sharp contrast with public schools, which have one room per 20 children. More than 50 per cent schools do not have a boundary wall. Around 58.1 per cent primary and upper primary schools have common toilets for boys and girls. Around 15 per cent schools do not have access to safe drinking water. This means lakhs of children stay either thirsty or have to drink unsafe water. Under the mid-day meal scheme, the government allocates money for constructing kitchens in government and aided schools. But data show that by 2006-07, only 29.36 per cent schools had kitchen sheds. Officials, however, emphasise that the dropout rates are coming down and enrolments are increasing. The allocation for the SSA is Rs 10,671 crore for this fiscal. The ministry wants about Rs 18,000 crore for the programme in the next fiscal. The SSA and the meal scheme are run with the money collected from the 2 per cent education cess on income tax, excise, Customs duty and service tax. The proceeds from the cess are credited into the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh. About Rs 10,393 crore is expected to be transferred to the fund during 2007-08.

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GUWAHATI, Feb 11

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The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has demanded a major increase in the allocations for two of its flagship programmes

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