The golden words of Sarva Sikhsha Abihiyan are to provide 8 years of quality elementary education to all children of In

3. Prelude� In April, 2000, the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal adopted a Framework of Action, committing to attain six specific Goals related to achieve Education For All (EFA). In September-2000, the UN outlined the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a view to end poverty and bridge the divide between the World�s haves and have-nots. Central to these goals on education was to achieve Universal Elementary Education (UEE), ensuring that by 2015,all children of school going age complete Elementary education of good quality. All National Governments have not only initiated a process, but in Many cases, have also designed mechanisms to monitor progress towards these goals. In India, children�s entitlements in basic education are articulated in two documents of national policy: The Fundamental Right to Education B. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

4. Right to Free & compulsory elementary education Under Art.21A of the Constitution of India , every child in the age group of 6-14 years has the fundamental right to free & compulsory elementary education of good quality. Govt. of India in consultation with States is enacting a legislation to make the above RIGHT justifiable

5. Goals of SSA� All children ( 6-14 yrs) to be enrolled in schools by 2005 All children to complete 5 years of primary education by 2007 All Children complete 8 years of elementary education by 2010 To bridge all gaps in gender and social category groups in the primary stage by 2007 and in the elementary stage by 2010. Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life.

6. The Scenario in Orissa�

7. Three pillars of education system�

8.

9. Schools in Orissa� There are 52,000 odd Govt. & Govt. aided schools in Orissa in Elementary & Secondary level They are controlled /managed by a host of departments/directorates (SME, SCST,Labour,GOI etc.) with varying degrees of command & control There are 18,000 odd Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centres catering to 400,000+ children There are 7,000 odd private recognised & unrecognised schools covering 400,000+ children

10. Teachers in Orissa� There are 100,000+ Elementary teachers in the state under S&ME department . 37000+ Para teachers assist them for teaching in elementary schools 5000+ CRC coordinators /325 BRC coordinators are in place to give them academic support 990 SI of schools/75 DI of Schools give them administrative support & supervise them 30 Dist. Project Coordinators implement the SSA project in 30 districts

11. Children in Orissa� It is estimated that the Orissa child population is around 10.7 million(0-14years). In 6-14 age group there are about 6.5 million children. Out of them nearly 5.8 million children are in school and about 0.65 million children are out of school. There are many reasons for which the children are out side the formal education system.

12. SSA Strategy� Aims for universal elementary education which involves universal enrolment, retention and achievement. It combines centrally set targets and norms for planning and costing with decentralised management ,bottom up planning , community mobilisation and social audits. It encourages partnership with NGOs & involvement of local community Development of useful indicators based on reliable data are critical steps for SSA project formulation and implementation.

13. Process Adopted Earlier� SSA has a system to collect school wise data through DISE (District Information System on Education) annually on school infrastructure, teachers in position & number of students. The DISE information each year are collated at the District, State and national level to generate various indicators .These indicators are used in planning & budgeting. It also conducted household survey as pre project activity . Village Education Registers (VERs) prepared on this survey were to be updated every year by the local Head teacher.

14. Limitations of DISE & VERs� Data collected to address the planning requirements for SSA through DISE and VER, were no sufficient . Some of its limitations are: There was no way to know if DISE covered all schools or not in a particular year. DISE does not cover Un-recognized schools and High Schools where 6-14 age group children study. The student information was in numbers and not in names. The VER maintenance and use could not be ensured across all villages.

15. Conceptualization of e-Shishu� Project e-Shishu was conceived by OPEPA and implemented jointly by OCAC, STPI and CSM Technologies as a dynamic Child Tracking System (CTS) to track children by their demographic, educational and physical status. This process involved tagging 52,000 villages to the schools, EMIS Code generation and ICR/non-ICR sheet designing for data collection. About 45,000 officers were trained in data collection process. Authenticated database of 10.5 million children (0-14yrs) was generated using Intelligent Character Recognition technology. This has been Web-enabled to generate reports for citizen at www.opepa.in . Appropriate Hardware & Network has been deployed to set up a WAN using VSAT, connecting state HQ with 30 district offices, all of which are equipped with servers and related hardware.

16. GIS School Mapping and EPIS sub Projects� GIS School mapping project aims to map all infrastructure available in each School alongwith latitude and longitude (GPS survey) EPIS will collect data and information regarding teachers and personnel involved in the elementary education system Both these data bases will be web enabled and linked to the Child Tracking System (CTS) This will enable us to view all the three main stake holders i.e. children, teacher and School on one platform

17. Identification of partners for CTS�

18. Mission Plan for e-Shishu� The Orissa Child Census -2005 was to capture Child Data using Intelligent Character Recognition(ICR) technology All the 30 Districts was to be connected to the State HQ to build a wide area network(WAN) where the district was to have their Children�s database with names. To further facilitate accuracy and correct information, software was developed and deployed District wise to update Children information regularly

21. SUB SECTION HAS TO BE DONE Pts 1 to 8 to be indicated as field level activities Pts 9 to 13 to be identified as scanning center activities SUB SECTION HAS TO BE DONE Pts 1 to 8 to be indicated as field level activities Pts 9 to 13 to be identified as scanning center activities

23. Project Management�

24. Challenges & Lessons� EMIS code generation Paper quality &precision printing Handling & conversion of ICR form Managing the errors Citizen centric feedback Validation & updation Maintenance of hardware & network

25. The CTS was the baseline data on which the entire planning for children was done for the current year 2006-07 by OPEPA under SSA The same data can be used by other Govt. Departments and NGOs for Planning, research & development purposes The way forward�

26. Thank You