Arun C Mehta[1]
Formerly Professor & Head
Department of Educational Management Information System
National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi
(E-mail: acmehta100@gmail.com)
Background
Since
the inception of the District Primary Education Programme in 1994, there is a
provision of developing district plans initially for the primary level of
education which was later extended to the entire elementary level of education
when Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme was launched in 2000-01. At the end of
DPEP in 2000, the development of district primary education plans could reach
272 districts across 18 States of the Country but still confined to DPEP states
and districts only. Special planning modules developed were extensively been
used in developing district plans and the whole exercise is termed as rigorous.
Intensive capacity building programmes were conducted by the apex institutions,
such as NIEPA, New Delhi on planning methodology with a focus on hands-on
training and data analysis, and use of indicators. There was also a provision
of pre-plan activities each of the districts covered under DPEP was supposed to
carry out each of the activities proposed in the DPEP framework most of which
were followed rigorously. District, as well as State planning teams with
representations from all the main streams departments, were constituted both of
which used to have intensive discussions on each of the plan components. Also,
several research studies were initiated both at the district and state level
for which a substantial amount was made available findings of which were the
important inputs for the plan formulation. Plans developed under
DPEP were used to be first appraised internally at the state level followed by
an intensive filed-based appraisal by the appraisal mission, having 10 to 12
experts representing different components of plan formulation, constituted by
the authorities at the national level findings of which were used to be
discussed at the national level in a meeting chaired by the Education Secretary
(School Education) and attended by the Mission members in the presence of the
State Project Director and his/her entire team. Every recommendation used to
have had heated arguments and consensus arrived on which used to was the basis
of approval state as well as district plans and was termed as a learning
activity not only for the state officers but also for the appraisal team members.
The
entire planning process as prescribed was rigorously followed all through the
DPEP but couldn’t be sustained the momentum except during the initial period of
the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme launched in 2001 to achieve the goal
of the universal elementary level of education. During the initial
period of SSA, both the plan formulation as well as plan appraisal were
rigorous but during the later years, the whole exercise becomes more or less
monotonous. Appraisal Mission was taken over by the Joint Review Mission
members of which used to visit states for a couple of days based on which
reports were submitted to the Government of India. Intensive plan formulation
was taken over by plans being formulated based on EXCEL Tables provided by the
Technical Support Group (TSG) of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Even though SSA was to
take care needs of the entire elementary level of education but district plans
were still centered on the primary level of education. Research studies were
rarely undertaken by the districts and states even though enough funds were
made available for the same. Whatever little studies were undertaken all were
undertaken by the TSG of SSA for which a separate unit was created within the
TSG. State Officers including MIS In-charge used to come to Delhi and fill-up
EXCEL Tables which is being followed by a pre-appraisal discussion with the TSG
Consultants outcome of which is presented before the Project Approval Board for
its consideration and approval. Initially, separate plans were being formulated
for SSA and RMSA which was launched in 2009 along with RTE which was also
enacted in 2009. Modifications were made both in the Data Capture
Format of DISE as well EXCEL planning Tables initially separately for the
elementary and secondary level of education but later the same set of tables
was merged into one package under the banner of school education plan. DISE has
also become the Unified DISE since 2012-13 when one Data Capture Format was
initiated to collect data from the entire school level of education.
Formulation of plans through EXCEL Tables continued till the launch of Samagra
Shiksha in the year 2018. The previously used EXCEL Tables are now
re-distributed under the headings, Right-to-Education, School and Teacher
education but still, the academic flavor is continued to be
missing. As it seems that experience of plan formulation under DPEP,
SSA & RMSA, its short-comings have not adequately utilized and is also not
visible in the on-going Samagra Shiksha so far as the district plan formulation
is concerned as the same practice of plan formulation is continued.
The Tables being used
are comprehensive covering all aspects of school education including RTE and
Teacher education and are largely based on U-DISE data and data from internal
sources which is difficult to verify. A few sets of data, such as on
out-of-school children and a few other such variables may not be available
annually. Because of the changes proposed in the NPE 2020 concerning school
structure, the computation and meaning of enrolment-based indicators, as well
as meaning of universalization, will completely be changed. The
current structure of 10+2 schooling will be changed to five years of
foundational education (age 3 to 7 years), three years of preparatory (age 8 to
10+ years), three years of the middle (upper primary/age 11 to 13+ years) and
four years of secondary education (age 14 to 18+ years). Because of the
changes, district planning tables under Samagra Shiksha may also eventually
require to be modified to meet the changed requirement.
It is hoped that the
district planning module developed by NIEPA will be implemented in the real
sense, for sure not only based on EXCEL tables which may be resulted only if
all those who are engaged in planning shake hands.
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[1] Article
is has been written after superannuation from NIEPA in August 2019.
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