Quantitative Educational Planning Modules for Samagra Shiksha

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A renewed, NEP 2020–aligned series of four self-contained planning modules — on Diagnosis & Indicators, Child Population Projection, Enrolment Projections, and Internal Efficiency — with a comprehensive User Guide for orientation workshops and self-learning.

Prof. Arun C. Mehta

Former Professor & Head, EMIS Department  |  National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi  |  educationforallinindia.com

Home › Educational Planning Modules › Quantitative Planning Modules for Samagra Shiksha (2026)

Educational planning in India has a distinguished methodological heritage. During the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP, 1994–2000), district and state planning teams across 18 states were trained in rigorous, data-driven plan formulation using a set of 12 planning modules developed by NIEPA, New Delhi under the editorship of Prof. N.V. Varghese. These modules — covering quantitative aspects of educational planning — were among the most widely used planning tools in India’s education sector and were instrumental in making the DPEP plan formulation exercise academically grounded, evidence-based, and participatory. They continued to be used, in adapted form, during the early years of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA, 2001–2018).

Over time, however, the rigour of plan formulation declined. Under SSA and later Samagra Shiksha, the planning process became a mechanical exercise driven by 50+ Excel tables provided by the Technical Support Group, formulated at the state level rather than the district level, and largely disconnected from real data analysis. Block Development Plans and School Development Plans — envisaged as the bottom-up foundation of district planning — could not be developed in most parts of the country. A thorough diagnosis exercise, which could have revealed how many years each state and district would take to achieve the goals of universal school education, ceased to be a standard planning requirement.

This new series of four modules represents a comprehensive relook at quantitative educational planning methodology — updated for the Samagra Shiksha framework, aligned with the NEP 2020 school structure, grounded in UDISE+ 2024-25 data, and designed for the realities of 2025 planning rather than 1994. They are offered freely on this website in the same spirit as the original DPEP modules of NIEPA — as a public good for the planning community.

The Original DPEP/SSA Planning Modules (NIEPA, 1994–2000)

The 12 modules on Quantitative Aspects of Educational Planning developed under DPEP remain available on this website. They were used extensively by district and state planning officers across the country under DPEP, SSA, and RMSA and retain their conceptual relevance. The new modules presented on this page build upon, update, and extend this foundation for the Samagra Shiksha era.

Access the Original DPEP/SSA Planning Modules

Modules for Quantitative Analysis of Educational Data (NIEPA/DPEP)

Educational Planning Modules — Full Archive

SSA Planning Resources

THE PLANNING CRISIS UNDER SAMAGRA SHIKSHA

Plans under Samagra Shiksha currently lack academic flavour. Targets are not state-specific or district-specific. No target year by which the goals of universal school education are to be achieved has been set for individual states or districts. GER is routinely computed using the 2011 Census population — now 14 years outdated — or left uncomputed. Block Development Plans exist on paper in most states. School Development Plans rarely feed into district plans. The diagnosis exercise — the foundation of evidence-based planning — has all but disappeared.

Without restoring rigorous, data-driven diagnosis and projection methodology, the goal of universal school education in India by 2030 under NEP 2020 will remain aspirational rather than achievable.

1 MODULE ONE  · 21 PAGES

Diagnosis, Data Requirements and Indicators in Educational Planning

The conceptual foundation. Covers the eight objectives of diagnosis (macro/micro, aggregated/disaggregated, government/private, stock/time-series, formal/non-formal, recognised/unrecognised, secondary/primary data, quantitative/qualitative); the four-component framework; 30-indicator annexure with UDISE+ 2024-25 All-India data; analysis and planning implications; AWP&B mapping.

2 MODULE TWO  ·  16 PAGES

Projecting Child Population for Educational Planning

The demographic foundation. Covers why child population is essential for GER, NER, and Out-of-School-Children; the Technical Group 2020 (MoHFW) as the recommended source; Method 1 — Linear interpolation for annual estimates; Method 2 — District-level ratio method using Census 2011; Method 3 — Block-level projection. Full worked examples at All-India, state, and district levels.

3 MODULE THREE·  15 PAGES

Enrolment Projections in School Education

Projects future enrolment for setting AWP&B targets. Covers Mathematical methods (Compound growth rate, Method of Least Squares) and the Analytical method (apparent entry rate + grade ratios — 8-step procedure with full worked example); scenario planning (Status Quo / Moderate / NEP 2020 Target); disaggregated projections; teacher requirement estimation.

4 MODULE FOUR· 17 PAGES

Internal Efficiency Indicators in School Education

Measures how efficiently children move through the school system. Covers flow rates (promotion, repetition, dropout) from UDISE+; the Reconstructed Cohort Method; Cohort Survival per 1,000 entrants; Coefficient of Efficiency; Wastage and Input-output ratio; transition rates; state comparisons; an interactive calculator; and worked exercises.

Companion Document
Guidelines for Use: A User Guide for Trainers and Officers

⬇ Download User Guide PDF

The User Guide (22 pages) provides comprehensive guidelines for using the four modules in orientation workshops, self-learning programmes, and actual AWP&B formulation. It covers: recommended study sequence, objectives (cognitive, skill, attitudinal), who should use which module at which level, trainer and trainee profiles, pre-requisites, three workshop designs (5-day residential, 3-day SRG orientation, 5-week self-learning schedule), how modules feed into Samagra Shiksha AWP&B, the transformation roadmap from Excel to academic planning, expected outcomes, and follow-up actions.

Recommended Sequence

The modules mirror the actual Samagra Shiksha planning cycle. Each module’s output feeds directly into the next:

First: Diagnose & Identify Gaps

Second: Project Child Population

Third: Project Enrolment & Set Targets

Fourth: Measure Efficiency & Retention

Who Should Use These Modules

The Critical Need: Developing Trainers and Decentralising Capacity Building

NIEPA Alone Cannot Serve the Purpose

India has 740+ districts, 6,700+ blocks, and thousands of planning officers engaged in Samagra Shiksha plan formulation. NIEPA, as the apex planning institution, has played a critical role in capacity building since DPEP — but its reach, bandwidth, and institutional resources cannot cover the scale of training required. State Resource Groups, DIETs, SIEMATs (wherever available), and BRC coordinators must be developed as a second and third tier of trainers capable of sustaining this capacity building independently at the state, district, and block levels.

This requires a deliberate Training of Trainers (ToT) architecture: NIEPA trains state-level master trainers; master trainers train district-level resource persons; district resource persons train block-level functionaries. The four modules and the User Guide are designed to support exactly this cascade — each is self-contained, uses freely available official data, requires no special software, and can be facilitated by any trained educational planner.

DIET faculty are the most strategically important group for this cascade. Each DIET serves a district and has a mandate for capacity building at the block and cluster level. If DIET faculty are trained in these modules, they can institutionalise this methodology in routine pre-service and in-service training — reaching every BEO and CRC coordinator in their district year after year.

What These Modules Enable That DPEP Modules Did Not

The original DPEP modules were excellent for their time but could not anticipate: NEP 2020’s new 5+3+3+4 school structure; UDISE+’s shift to individual student-wise data; the non-availability of the 2021 Census and the consequent need for Technical Group projection methods; the expanded private school sector (now 38.8% of enrolment); the digital infrastructure requirements of NEP 2020; and the dramatic improvement in the availability of district and block-level data through UDISE+ portals accessible online. The new modules address each of these directly, with worked examples using 2024-25 official data.

Expected Outcomes

📊 Evidence-Based AWP&B

District plans grounded in diagnostic data, projected population, scenario-based targets, and efficiency analysis — not previous year’s Excel tables.

🎯 Disaggregated Targets

Block-level, sex-disaggregated, and social-category-specific targets (SC/ST/Girls/CWSN) replacing uniform state-level percentages.

📐 Correct Indicator Computation

GER computed with projected population; dropout measured through cohort tracking; transition gaps quantified and acted upon.

🏫 Participatory Planning Restored

SDPs and BDPs feeding upward into district plans; community and block-level data informing evidence-based interventions.

👨‍🏫 Trainer Cadre Developed

A self-sustaining network of state and district resource persons capable of training new officers every year without depending on NIEPA alone.

🎓 NEP 2020 Goals Made Achievable

Universal school education by 2030 requires knowing — district by district — how many years it will take and what is needed. These modules provide the methodology to answer that question.

What is New and Different in This Series

• All data updated to UDISE+ 2024-25— GER, dropout rates, PTR, infrastructure indicators, SC/ST enrolment, and retention rates all sourced directly from the official UDISE+ 2024-25 Report (MoE, August 2025), with analysis of planning implications after each indicator table.
• NEP 2020 stage structure throughout— all indicators, projections, and target examples are presented for Foundational (I–V), Preparatory (VI–VIII), Secondary (IX–X), and Higher Secondary (XI–XII) stages, not the old 10+2 structure.
• Eight objectives of diagnosis— the comprehensive diagnostic framework (macro/micro, aggregated/disaggregated, govt/private, stock/time-series, formal/non-formal, recognised/unrecognised, secondary/primary data, quantitative/qualitative) drawn from Prof. Mehta’s published work — presented here for the first time in module format.
• Population projection methodology for inter-censal years— with the 2021 Census unavailable, Module 2 provides the interpolation and ratio methods required to derive reliable district-level population denominators from the Technical Group 2020 projections.
• Critical perspective integrated— each module includes Prof. Mehta’s published critique of the decline of planning rigour under SSA and Samagra Shiksha, contextualising the methodology within the real challenges faced by planning officers.
• Self-contained exercises with real data— each module contains 3–4 exercises using actual UDISE+ and Technical Group data, designed for both workshop use and individual self-learning without any special software.
• Full 30-indicator annexurein Module 1 — formulae, data sources, interpretation, and UDISE+ 2024-25 values for every indicator used in Samagra Shiksha AWP&B, grouped by diagnostic component.

Download All Five Documents

All four planning modules and the User Guide are freely available. No registration required. They are designed to be used as-is, with freely available official data from UDISE+, the Technical Group Projections 2020, and Census 2011.

Module 1 — Diagnosis, Data Requirements & Indicators of Education planning (21 pp) Module 2 — Projecting Child Population (16 pp) Module 3 — Method and Techniques of Enrolment Projections (37 pp) Module 4 — Internal Efficiency Indicators in School Planning (16 pp)📘 Guidelines for Use of the Quantitative Planning Modules User Guide (22 pp)

For queries on using these modules in your state or district, or for training support, contact Prof. Arun C. Mehta at acmehta100[at]gmail[dot]com or WhatsApp: 98681-84981.

All modules © Prof. Arun C. Mehta  |  educationforallinindia.com  |  Free for use in educational planning and capacity building  |  Data: UDISE+ 2024-25 (MoE); Technical Group Projections 2020 (MoHFW); Census 2011 (RGI)  | Updated & posted on educationforallinindia.com on April 2026