Flagship Programs at Three Levels

The positive outcome of some of the schemes mentioned above, inspired educational planners to conceive of similar missions in a more coordinated manner. Thus, a mission era set in. Since the year 2000, three missions, one each on elementary education, secondary education and higher education, called ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, ‘Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikhsa Abhiyan’, and ‘Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan’ respectively, have been launched. Each mission takes care of the tribal interest in various ways. The measures under these missions are comprehensive and all-encompassing. Most of the measures are beyond the routine government policy of positive discrimination. The missions, thus, promise to break the long- standing stalemate of unsatisfactory participation of the tribals at different levels of education.

The first, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, has been introduced for the achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education in time-bound manner, which is a scheme of the Centre in partnership with the States, addressing the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations.73 The target of the program was to enable all children complete five years of primary schooling by the year 2007 and eight years of schooling by 2010. The program is the culmination of all previous endeavours and experiences of the government in the education domain. The program focuses, through a variety of interventions, on universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps, and improving the quality of learning. With a view to create conditions of equity in real terms, the program seeks to open new schools in those habitations which lack schooling facility and strengthen the existing school infrastructure. It also provides for additional teachers in schools facing shortages, special teacher training and grants for developing teaching-learning materials. The project follows community-based approach in planning, where habitation is the unit for district-level plans.

The Government strengthened the education policy through the Constitution (Eighty- Sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, making free and compulsory education of the children of age-group, 6-14 years, a Fundamental Right. The Government worked out clear norms on various matters ranging from Centre-State cost-sharing to teacher-student ratio, school space, distribution of free study materials, and so on. To make the project a success, the Government ensured sustained financing. An important support to the program also came from the National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, popularly known as Mid-Day Meal scheme, which was later revised to make it more effective. The Government claimed that during 2004-05, about 10.88 crore children availed of the Mid-Day Meal scheme. Another important initiative was the establishment of residential upper-primary schools, called Kasturba Gandhi Balika

73 _{The details here are from, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, ‘Educational Development of}

Schedules Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Status and Programmes’, August 2005, and Ministry of Hunan Resource Development, Government of India, ‘Background Paper’, First Meeting of National Monitoring Committee for Education of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Persons with Disabilities, 27 June 2012, New Delhi , mimeo.

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Vidyalaya, for ‘hard to reach’ girls, which would largely comprise tribals. These schools were meant for educationally backward blocks. In the first phase, 750 such residential schools were planned.

Confident of having built a sound base of primary education, the Government mooted a national mission at the secondary level of schooling, since 2005 under the forums of the Central Advisory Board of Education and the Planning Commission. Finally, the mission, ‘Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan’, was inaugurated in 2009. The Government made the case for the mission from the statement of the National Policy, 1986 that the access to secondary education would be widened ‘with emphasis on enrolment of girls, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, particularly in science, commerce and vocational streams.’ The mission’s objectives are the following: i) to achieve a gross enrolment ratio of 75 per cent for classes IX-X within five years by providing a secondary school, within a reasonable distance of every habitation, ii) to improve quality of education by making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, iii) to remove gender, socio-economic, geographic and disability barriers, iv) universal access to secondary level education by 2017, that is, by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, and v) universal retention by 2020.74

Within this framework, detailed strategies in the interest of the tribals and other weaker sections have been worked out. To widen access, the steps are: expansion of existing schools; upgrading upper primary schools, particularly Ashram schools and open new schools in under-served areas. In the interest of the tribals, the norm of a secondary school in the five kilometre radius is relaxed. For enhancing equitable participation, the measures include: more residential facilities with improved living condition; free uniform, books and cash incentive for girls; merit scholarship; and expansion of distance learning system. For the improvement of quality, the measures are: better classroom facilities, laboratories, libraries, and computer rooms, appointment of additional teachers, in-service training of teachers and providing residential facilities to teachers, including female teachers. Another important strategy to help the tribal learners is the deployment of resource agencies, for developing locale-specific supplementary materials to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps and training of teachers accordingly. Specific measures at the district level are supposedly based on extensive consultation with the households, villages and Gram Sabhas/wards.

The latest mission, the Rashtriya Uchchatar Siksha Abhiyan, was initiated in September, 2013, alongside introducing the Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship, Centres for Studies in Discrimination and Exclusion, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University and a number of Central Universities, more Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management in the interest of the weaker sections and the tribals.

74_{Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan', Ministry of Human Resource}

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The mission, beyond these, spreads over two Five-Year Plan periods.75 It stands for a ‘strategic intervention for the improvement of access, equity and quality’ in country’s higher education through a special centrally-sponsored scheme. The idea is inferred from the earlier University Commission, 1949 and the Indian Education Commission, 1964, which the National Education Policy, 1986 carried forward. The Rashtriya Uchchatar Siksha Abhiyan focuses on State Universities and institutions under them, funded by the Government, since they cater to 94 per cent of students. Taking note, that Gross Enrolment Ratio of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes is far below than that of the general population, the mission talks about greater access with special emphasis on rural and tribal areas.

6.5.1 Outcome of the Missions

All the three missions have been concerned about problems associated with tribal education, namely, low enrolment, high drop-out rate and low level of learning. Several measures undertaken through the mission addressed these core issues. An assessment of the programs shows that, in many respects, there has been an improvement across the education levels, as the following observations indicate:

 The gap between Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the other social groups in terms of access to school education has significantly narrowed down. Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan specially, massive infrastructure development took place. The number of schools and teachers has increased. Over 3 lakh new schools were opened and existing schools were equipped with basic facilities. The average student-classroom ratio came down from 39 in 2005-06 to 32 in 2009-10. The chief beneficiaries of these developments were the tribal regions.76

 Tables 6.6 and 6.7 show that between 1993-94 and 2007-08, the number of tribal households within 1 kilometer of the vicinity of primary school rose from 77.12 per cent to 88.46 per cent. The rise was discernible more in the rural areas, where it rose from 73.86 per cent to 88 per cent. Similar trends can be seen at the upper primary and secondary level of schooling. Sizeable percentage of Scheduled Tribe households was within 1 kilometre reach of the upper primary school (54 per cent) and of secondary school. The increase of this facility among the rural Scheduled Tribe population in respect to the upper primary school was striking.

 The trend of enrolment of the tribals at different stages of education shows that there is a steady decadal rise. When compared with the Scheduled Castes and the general categories, the growth of Scheduled Tribe enrolment is most steady (Table 6.8). Table 6.9 on Gross Enrolment Ratio corroborates the trend

75 _{See the Mission’s vision and other details in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Rashtriya Uchchatar Siksha}

Abhiyan: National Higher Education Mission, September 2013.

76 _{Planning Commission, Government of India, Twelfth Five Year Plan 2012-2017, Social Sectors, Volume III, New Delhi: Sage}

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of continuous rise of Scheduled Tribe enrolment at all levels of education shown in the previous table in the two decades considered here. In most cases, the GER of Scheduled Tribes at the primary and the upper primary level of schooling is higher than that of the Scheduled Castes and the General categories.

 Available statistics show that the Government efforts in the last two decades have been able to contain the drop-out rates (Table 6.10). The rate has almost continuously declined. Given the record of somewhat static situation earlier, this was a major achievement. The incidence is specially checked in the initial stage, namely, Class I –VIII.

 Related to the above, there is decline in the number out-of-school children, as can be seen from the statistics of the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the period between 2005 and 2009.

Table 6.6: Distance between Household and Nearest Primary School, 1993-94 to 2007-08 (per cent)

Groups Percentage of Households

1km 2km 3km 4km 5km 1993- 94 2007- 08 1993- 94 2007- 08 1993- 94 2007- 08 1993- 94 2007- 08 1993- 94 2007- 08 Total ST 77.12 88.46 13.39 8.25 6.27 2.35 3.21 0.36 - 0.58 SC 84.31 92.29 12.47 6.57 2.87 0.92 0.35 0.19 - 0.03 GEN 85.07 92.15 11.46 6.58 2.97 1.03 0.50 0.19 - 0.05 Total 83.94 91.67 11.87 6.81 3.37 1.19 0.82 0.21 - 0.12 Rural ST 73.86 88.00 14.85 8.32 7.45 2.52 3.84 0.43 - 0.72 SC 81.09 92.36 14.83 6.38 3.66 0.99 0.42 0.24 - 0.03 GEN 80.43 91.86 14.17 6.67 4.70 1.17 0.70 0.24 - 0.06 Total 79.43 91.31 14.41 6.89 4.98 1.36 1.19 0.27 - 0.17 Urban ST 92.57 90.26 6.48 7.95 0.72 1.67 0.23 0.08 - 0.03 SC 91.35 92.11 7.30 7.05 1.14 0.75 0.20 0.05 - 0.04 GEN 91.01 92.59 7.99 6.44 0.76 0.82 0.24 0.11 - 0.04 Total 91.15 92.33 7.81 6.64 0.81 0.88 0.23 0.10 - 0.04

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Table 6.7: Distance between Households and Upper Primary/Secondary Schools (per cent) Group/ School 1km 2km 3km 4km 5km Upp. Prim. Sec. Sch. Upp. Prim. Sec. Sch. Upp. Prim. Sec. Sch. Upp. Prim. Sec. Sch. Upp. Prim. Sec. Sch. Total ST 54.6 31.1 15.8 15.3 13.2 15.1 8.8 13.2 7.6 25.3 SC 62.1 40.6 17.6 19.9 12.2 16.9 5.8 11.7 2.2 10.9 OBC 64.5 40.4 16.6 19.2 10.6 15.5 5.5 12.8 2.7 12.2 GEN 62.2 52.4 18.3 20.2 11.7 12.2 5.1 8.0 2.7 7.2 Total 61.8 42.8 17.1 19.1 11.6 14.7 6.0 11.2 3.4 12.3 Rural ST 54.6 22.9 15.8 12.7 13.2 16.9 8.8 16.1 7.6 31.3 SC 62.1 31.8 17.6 17.4 12.2 20.6 5.8 15.4 2.2 14.8 OBC 64.5 28.9 16.6 16.9 10.6 19.4 5.5 17.4 2.7 17.4 GEN 62.2 34.4 18.3 19.4 11.7 19.0 5.1 13.9 2.7 13.4 Total 61.8 29.7 17.1 16.9 11.6 19.1 6.0 16.0 3.4 18.3 Urban ST 80.2 63.1 15.2 25.5 3.2 7.9 0.9 1.9 0.5 1.6 SC 79.3 63.2 17.4 26.4 2.5 7.3 0.6 2.1 0.1 0.9 OBC 81.9 65.1 14.5 23.9 2.7 7.0 0.7 2.9 0.2 1.1 GEN 83.8 70.6 13.6 21.1 1.8 5.3 0.6 1.9 0.2 1.0 Total 82.2 67.1 14.6 23.2 2.3 6.4 0.6 2.3 0.2 1.1 Source: NSS 64th _{Round (2007-08)}

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Table 6.8: Educational Level-wise Enrolment, 1980-81 to 2010-11 of STs and Others (in Lakhs)

Year/Level Scheduled Tribes Scheduled Castes All Categories

Primary (I-V) Upper Primary (VI-VIII) Primary (I-V) Upper Primary (VI-VIII) Primary (I-V) Upper Primary (VI-VIII)

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

1980-81 31 15 46 5 2 7 72 38 110 16 6 22 453 285 738 139 68 207 1990-91 49 29 78 11 6 17 97 60 157 27 14 41 570 404 974 215 125 340 2000-01 63 47 110 19 12 31 121 91 212 41 26 67 640 498 1138 253 175 428 2005-06 75 67 142 25 20 45 140 113 253 53 38 91 705 616 1321 289 233 522 2006-07 76 68 144 26 20 46 144 118 262 54 39 93 710 627 1337 298 246 544 2007-08 76 70 146 26 21 47 137 125 262 53 46 99 711 644 1355 310 262 572 2008-09(P) 79 73 152 27 23 50 138 127 265 56 49 105 700 645 1345 294 260 554 2009-10(P) 79 73 152 28 23 51 138 127 265 58 51 109 708 648 1356 318 276 594 2010-11(P) 77 72 149 28 26 54 141 129 270 59 53 112 705 648 1353 328 292 620

Year/Level Sec./Sr. Sec

(IX-XIII)