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School Education Plans under Samagra Shiksha in year 2021-22
Modifications in view of
National Policy on Education (NPE) 2020

The National Policy on Education (NPE 2020) has recommended many initiatives which have far reaching implications for School Education in India in general and planning under Samagra Shiksha under which there is provision to formulate district school education plans annually. District plans already had three components, teacher education, Right to Education and different aspects of school education. In view of NPE 2020 recommendations, one can envisage drastic changes in the plan formulation under Samagra Shiksha details of which were recently released by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education.

In addition to components already available under Samagra Shiksha, the following components have also been formed part of annual plan formulation which is expected to be part of both State and District school education  plans across the country during 2021-22. The letter was issued on 24th March 2021 and Project Approval Board Meetings to take place during 7th April to 25th May 2021 and a state has to upload the plan proposal 15 days prior to the scheduled PAB meeting on a specific portal, namely PRABANDH (Project Appraisal, Budgeting, Achievements and Data Handling System). In view of the wide-spread modifications and addition of a number of new components, it is going to be challenging one for both the state and district level officers engaged in Samagra Shiksha to meet the deadline.

In view of modifications it is hoped that the plan formulation methodology will also be revised (not EXCEL Tables) accordingly.  It is hoped that the premier planning institute, namely NIEPA will soon come out with its modified planning methodology. But the moot question is when would the capacity building programmes take place in view of the limited time left from now to online submission of plan proposals. Or the district plans will continue to be formulated at the state level as has been present practice.

Ministry Guidelines also suggest that the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B) 2021-21 should be formulate based on 2019-20 U-DISE data and other information available on SHAGUN portal. It may be observed that it was a practice to formulate plans based on the current year’s data which has now been forfeited as a good number of states are still in the process of finalizing their 2019-20 UDISE data. It would be of interest to know how many states would actually use 2019-20 data or they simply formulate plan based on 2018-19 data.

The following are some of the recommendations of NEP 2020 proposed to be included in Samagra Shiksha 2021-22:

  • Introduction of one year of Balvatika and Teaching Learning Material (TLM) to all children
  • National Mission of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy
  • Holistic Progress Card
  • Introduction of tracking of earning outcomes as well as transition of children
  • Induction of qualified counsellors at secondary and senior secondary level in a phased manner
  • Language Teachers Capacity building of teachers (50 Hrs CPD)
  • Bag-less days and internships
  • Support for Out Of School Children in age group of 16 to 19 years
  • Separate stipend for Children With Special Need girl child
  • Provision for identification of Children With Special Need and Resource Centre at block level
  • Expansion of schooling facilities including Resident al Schools/Hostels, KGBVS
  • Provision for Hub and Spoke model in vocational education
  • Provision for Smart classroom and support for DIKSHA
  • Support for Assessment Cells in SCERT
  • Thrust on universalizing access to quality secondary and senior secondary education.

For details, please see the original guidelines issued by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India for plan formulation in 2021-22.