EXTENSION OF TARGET UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

LOK SABHA

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme is being implemented in all districts of the country to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education (UEE) in a time bound manner, in mission mode.  Consequently, the number of out of school children, which was 320 lakh in 2001-02, has come down to 75.97 lakh in 2007-08, as per State reports.  A statement showing number of out of school children as reported by States upto March 2007 is at annexure.

A rigorous system of monitoring of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been put in place which includes, inter alia, monthly and quarterly progress reports and review meetings, furnishing of annual elementary school statistics, field monitoring by 41 independent monitoring institutions and six monthly independent reviews by experts on the progress of the programme.  In addition rigorous financial audits and concurrent financial reviews are done in the State SSA programmes.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri M.A.A. Fatmi in reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

ANNEXURE

SI. NO.	State/ UT	Out of school children as on March 2007
1	Andhra Pradesh	264013
2	Arunachal Pradesh	30565
3	Assam	338834
4	Bihar	2119584
5	Chhattisgarh	123632
6	Goa	7699
7	Gujarat	134643
8	Haryana	238847
9	Himachal Pradesh	5624
10	Jammu & Kashmir	108560
11	Jharkhand	209662
12	Karnataka	174533
13	Kerala	20790
14	Madhya Pradesh	296979
15	Maharashtra	136892
16	Manipur	54351
17	Meghalaya	37234
18	Mizoram	4913
19	Nagaland	35335
20	Orissa	537841
21	Punjab	227645
22	Rajasthan	163894
23	Sikkim	3204
24	Tamil Nadu	103261
25	Tripura	15376
26	Uttar Pradesh	785524
27	Uttarakhand	22230
28	West Bengal	1357601
29	A & N Island	133
30	Chandigarh	5505
31	D & N Haveli	1614
32	Daman & Diu	201
33	Delhi	30001
34	Lakshadweep	168
35	Puducherry	326
	INDIA	7597214

Bihar, Bengal put record number of kids back in school

5 Jun 2008, 0203 hrs IST,Akshaya Mukul,TNN

NEW DELHI: Bihar and West Bengal, always the subject of ridicule among policy planners, have created a record of sorts by contributing the maximum in bringing down the national figure of out-of-school children in the age-group of 6-14 from 75.97 lakh in March last year to 45.05 lakh in March this year.

What lends further credence to the efforts of these states is that the maximum number of children who have started going back to school are Muslims, SCs and STs.

Take Bihar. The state has paid an immense tribute to the late Madan Mohan Jha, jokingly called a part-time bureaucrat and full-fledged educationist, who died as principal secretary, education, last year and made tireless efforts to drag Bihar from the bottom of the educational heap.

His state has done the unthinkable by bringing down the out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 to 10.10 lakh this year from a mammoth 21.19 lakh last year.

In March 2008, the Muslim child population in Bihar in the age group 6-14 was 33.06 lakh. Out of them, only 2.83 lakh were out of school.

Compare it to March 2007 when the number of out-of-school Muslim children stood at 4.24 lakh. Now only 8.6% of Muslim children (6-14) are out of school in the state.

A similar feat has been achieved in the case of SC children. Now only 2.71 lakh SC children are out of school. In March 2007, 4.99 lakh SC children had not been to school. The population of SC children in Bihar stands at 38.10 lakh.

After Jharkhand was carved out, Bihar does not have much of an ST population. Still, the magic continues. Out of the 2.41 lakh ST children in the age group of 6-14, now only 25,901 are out of school.

In March 2007, more than 45,000 ST children were out of the education system. All this shows how the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has now become firmly entrenched.

The HRD ministry attributes Bihar’s success to a team of dedicated officials who have gone out of the way to improvise education so that it becomes inclusive for all social groups.

West Bengal is on the same pedastal as Bihar. Often chided for its poor record among minorities, the number of out-of-school children in the state is now 1.13 lakh, a remarkable decrease from last year’s 3.67 lakh. Now only 2.5% of Muslim children population of 45.27 lakh is out of school.

Among SCs, the out-of-school children now is 1.05 lakh, a sharp decrease from 3.25 lakh last year. Now only 2.8% of SC children population of 37.70 lakh is out of school. The state has also done remarkably well in getting ST children to school. From 92,225 out-of-school ST children last year, only 30,331 remain to get in now.

In the case of Muslim children, states like Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have not done well since the number of out-of-school children has increased. Performing states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have also not been able to maintain their overall good performance when it comes to Muslim children