Effectiveness of Sarvashiksha Abhiyan

As per the exigency and demand of time, many amendments have been made in the Indian Constitution to suit the interests of the people. And the 86th amendment made primary education a fundamental right, under which Sarvashiksha Abhiyan has aimed at educating every child from each corner of the country.

The main objective of the Sarvashiksha Abhiyan is to provide primary education, as the fundamental right, to each child. But the poor performance and lacking interest of state governments is acting as the main obstacle on the way of achieving this target. The 11th five-year plan has allotted Rs 1, 25, 880 crore for this scheme and the 10th had allotted 65,000 crore. Despite approx doubling the amount in comparison to the last five-year plan, it is being said that the amount is less than sufficient.

However, the finance minister, time and again has been assuring that scarcity of funds would never prove to be a hurdle in any developmental programme. But, out of this, according to the report of National Sample Survey Organisation, three crore children were out of school during the years 2001-03

It is true that the graph of attendance in govt. schools has risen after the implementation of Sarvasiksha Abhiyan in which the mid-day meal is the major attraction. Definitely all credit goes to the mid-day meal programme that not only helped to increase the strength of the class but also strengthen the students themselves. But schools should not be considered only as hotels. The main objective of school is to provide quality education rather than just feeding.

Quality education means support by good infrastructure and trained manpower. But, the data exposes that the basic infrastructure still has not been made available under this scheme: 80% schools do not have a permanent building and 15% schools are being run only by one teacher. Along with this existing problem, the matter of concern is the national dropout rate of govt. schools which is 61 per cent. Some states have even surpassed the national rate, Bihar has 83%, Sikkim has 82%, Assam has 70% and Arunachal Pradesh shows 70% dropout rates.

The dropout rate is also considered to be correlated with the lack of infrastructure i.e. a properly surrounded place is necessary for a good study environment and for security as well. It is not new that many schools are running either under the shade of a tree or under broken and open roof buildings. In the south-eastern part of India, monsoon stays much longer. One wonders how is it possible to run schools in rainy season, except maintaining records on paper.

To hide the reality, the govt. has withdrawn the “pass-fail system” in the primary schools. So a child enrolled today will be kindly considered a primary pass out just visiting school once in a week or a month. And it is clearly reflected from their performance when a primary pass out student is unable to read a book and solve simple arithmetic questions. In such a situation why parents will be interested in it when they can see that despite continuing the study the child's future is going to be full of darkness.

Providing quality education depends on the quality of the teachers. However, the quality can be developed by providing proper training. Considering training also essential for the teachers, the govt. has started a 20 days training programme for them, but it seems less effective without proper follow up.

From this abysmal record it is sure that the target of 2010 to bring all children to school is going to fail and if it's not given a serious approach now, all the expenditure will go in vain.